C
yprien Murwanashyaka
embodies the spirit of a
modern entrepreneur.
At 32, he has had jobs ranging
fromcommoditytradingandcivil
society activism to data clerking
and freight forwarding in nearly
every country in the East Africa
Community. But lately, this la
graduate has been evaluatingh
stay in Tanzania’s commerci
capital, Dar es Salaam, wher
he moved two years ago to run
his cargo clearing company.
“Businessissloweveninthepeak
season,” Murwanashyaka says.
“I used to move 20 containers a
month,nowIaverageabout10.”
Acombinationofeconomicand
politicalfactorshavecausedmajor
East African ports to struggle to
maintain growth in throughput,
hurting thousands of businesses
that offer auxiliary services. Last
year, East Africa’s largest port of
Mombasa registered a gain in
throughput of a meagre 2.4%, to
27.4m tonnes, the slowest growth
in half a decade.ELECTION JITTERS
Sluggish economic growth in
the region and election jitters
ahead of Kenya’s August polls are
behind the slowdown, according
to Haji Masemo, a spokesman
for the Kenya Ports Authority
(KPA): “People have been a lit-
tle cautious of Kenya because
of the elections,” Masemo told
The Africa Reportin late April,
saying that he anticipated “slug-
gish performance all the way to
December”. Results that cameout
in June revealed a less gloomy
picture, however, with 11% more
cargo handled in the first quarter,
helped by increased efficiency
and improved capacity.
Some of Mombasa’s wounds
are self-inflicted. Part of theEAST AFRICAPortsinastorm
Last year was a challenging one for East Africa’s ports.
While political uncertainty in Kenya remains a source of
anxiety, both ports are forging ahead with improvementsreason there was dismal growth
of transshipment traffic was the
recent transshipment bond re-
quirement, which scared off ship-
pers. The regulation was aban-
doned in January. Government
agencies, which often duplicate
roles, also increase operational
costs. The KPA maintains a target
of 1.2m twenty-foot equivalent
units (TEUs) and 28m tonnes of
throughput this year. Masemo
says he hopes that business will
pick up when Kenya begins ex-
porting oil in July.
The going has been toughest
for the port of Dar es Salaam, in-
dustry insiders say. One factor of
difficulty for Dar es Salaam is that
most of the mineral exports from
neighbouringZambiaaremoving
through South Africa’s port of
Durban instead of Dar es Salaam
due to the weak rand.
Another factor is the softening
of trade between South Africa
and the East African region.
“A weak rand slowed down
demand for South African ex-
portstoEastAfrica,”saysJuma
Tellah, chief executive officer ofKenya Ships Agents Association
(KSAA). “On the other hand,
exports from South Africa [...]
could trigger inflation.”
The Tanzania Ports Authority
(TPA) has not publicly released
its performance figures since
2015, when former president
Jakaya Kikwete set an 18% an-
nual growth target for the har-
bour, which at the time handled
500,000 TEUs per year. Janeth
Ruzangi, a TPA spokeswoman,
declined to comment on current
cargo figures.
Uncertainty about the impact
ofKenya’selection,whichalready
witnessed conflict during prima-
ry votes, may create an advantage
for theportof Dares Salaam,with
hinterland cargo diverted there,
according to the KSAA’s Tellah.DAR IN THE DOLDRUMS
The Tanzanian port’s volumes
are not expected to recover in
the short term, however, be-
cause of a combination of factors
including the country’s recent
mineral export ban, the contin-
ued levying of value-added tax
on transport services, unrest in
Burundi and the political crisis
in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC). The civil war
in South Sudan and reduced2.4%
Increase
in container
traffic
registered
by East
Africa’s
largest port
of Mombasa
in 2016,
the slowest
rate in half
a decadeSOURCE: KENYA PORTS
AUTHORITYg y a a h i r n
g
y
an
aw
his
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nMombasaDaresSalaam
Indian
Ocean500 kmETHIOPIASOMALIASOUTH
SUDANDRCUGANDARWANDA
BURUNDIKENYATANZANIAMOZAMBIQUEZAMBIA
MALAWIMADAGASCAR80 DOSSIER| LOGISTICS