The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) is set to review its Transport Observatory Report communication strategy to arrest a decline in the number of people visiting the sites. The communication strategy will also review the closely related Mombasa Port and Northern Corridor Community Charter that was revised in 2018.
Statistics released by the NCTTCA recorded a decline in the number of returning and new visitors compared to five years ago. In 2012 the Transport Observatory portal received 6356 returning visitors while new visitors reached 12,196. This compares poorly t0 4026 returning and 9643 new visitors in 2020.
The Northern Corridor Observatory and Mombasa Port Community Charter is administering a Baseline Survey to find out why there has been this decline. A detailed questionnaire is available online to be filled by various industry players.
NCTTCA also held a virtual meeting yesterday and invited participants from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, DR Congo and Burundi to share experience and challenges encountered while accessing and using information from the observatory report and the charter.
The authority invited recommendations on changes the industry stakeholders would wish to see initiated or implemented to improve satisfaction with the communication on both the Charter and Observatory reports.
The NCTTCA expects to share data using the advanced system once the findings are ready. It also plans to progressively use friendly mobile based applications and comprehensive data analysis using business intelligence technology.
It also expects to use fast, modern and attractive portals featuring more indicators and easy to share on social media platforms. The new communication strategy hopes to include interactive and enriched Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of the corridor.
Northern Corridor Transport Observatory is a monitoring tool that measures 47 indicators that track the performance of the port of Mombasa and the performance of the corridor. Last year, NCTTCA announced plans to upgrade the toolkit to improve efficiency in reporting in a collaborative initiative with the TradeMark East Africa (TMEA).
“Key features include data mining and business intelligence capabilities aimed at supporting decision-making processes for different corridor participants. The toolkit will also incorporate a universal data exchange mechanism to automate data exchange from the sources and reports and recommendations modules as the repository for all reports and publications on the Corridor performance,” NCTTCA announced.
The new system was expected to track and report performance on the expanded infrastructure that includes the Standard Gauge Railway and Inland Container Depots (ICDs) in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Flexibility and adaptability of the system enable it to accommodate data changes from different sources, future extensions in terms of indicators to be monitored, additional data sources and any additional features on data analytics and reporting.
Besides improved efficiency, the robust system is expected to support the commitment by the Northern Corridor Secretariat to transform the Corridor into an efficient, smart and green corridor through continued advocacy for full automation of systems and processes.
The Transport Observatory platform has been tracking performance along the corridor using raw data collected from the stakeholders in all the Member States of Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. Observatory report generates weekly, monthly, quarterly and bi-annual reports.
Mombasa Port and Northern Corridor Community Charter was a culmination of extensive consultations among port community stakeholders on improvement of service delivery at the Port of Mombasa and along the Northern Corridor. This initiative was led by key agencies involved in logistics with the support of the TMEA. The initial charter that brought together 25 government and private agencies was signed in 2014, each committing to certain levels of performance. The revised Charter extended this number to 53.
With time, authorities noted that while some targets were achieved, others appeared to have been overtaken by changes in infrastructure, systems, processes and policies that impacted on operations and cargo clearance processes.
Observers also noted that the initial Charter had omitted key stakeholders who needed to be part of the process. In response to these developments, TMEA supported a review of the Charter in May 2016. y, not only to Kenya traders but also to our neighbouring countries.”
