The government has announced plans to clear all transit cargo imported through the port of Mombasa at the Inland Container Depot in Naivasha.
Last week, the facility hosted the Rwandan High Commissioner to Kenya Dr. Richard Masozera, Democratic Republic of Congo chargé d’affaires to Kenya Mr. Michel B. Muzare and Mr Lam Isaac from the Republic of South Sudan in a familiarization tour of the facility.
The delegation, according to Kenya Railways, was on a mission to learn about the nature of operations at the Naivasha ICD and its suitability in handling cargo destined for their countries.
Team Leader-Business and Commercial Expert Mr. James Siele said that all transit cargo will now be delivered to the facility straight from the Port of Mombasa.
The facility has 45,000 square metres and has a capacity of handling 2 million tonnes of goods per year. It will receive 216 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) every day.
All cargo destined for our East African member states of Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Sudan will be transported directly to this facility in ten hours from the Mombasa Port, Kenya Railways said.
The Naivasha ICD includes a one-stop centre for ease of operations and efficient service delivery. The port houses all the Government agencies involved in handling of cargo namely KR, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Bureau of Standards, Port Health (Public Health) and Revenue Authority officers from partner states of Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Truck drivers entering ICD Naivasha, just like at the Port of Mombasa are required to have Covid-19 free certificates in order to ensure that cargo is exited through the boarders efficiently while containing the spread of the disease in the region.
In February this year, a delegation led by the Uganda Consul General Ambassador Katureebe Tayebwa was in the country to gauge the developments put in place to improve service delivery through the Northern Corridor. They toured the Port of Mombasa before travelling by the SGR train from the Coastal city to Naivasha ICD.
They also visited the Inland Container Depot Nairobi (ICDN) that is currently handling an average of 8 freight trains per day.
Last year, ICDN handled 418,000 TEUs against the 257,000 TEUs handled in 2018, almost exhausting its installed capacity of 450,000 TEUs.
Mombasa port has in the recent years recorded a steady growth of the cargo volume. According to Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), the port handled over 34 million tonnes of throughput cargo by the close of 2019 compared with 28.550 million in 2018.
Naivasha ICD will put Mombasa port at a competitive advantage to Dar port, its main rival. Despite the increase of cargo throughput, the Mombasa port has recorded reduced transit cargo to Burundi, which has moved its business to Dar.
Last year, the Dar es Salaam port received more than 600,000 TEUs. More than 58 per cent of the containers handled at the port of Dar es Salam were domestic and 42 per cent were in transit.
In Kenya, 70 per cent of cargo that pass through the port of Mombasa are for the local market with the rest going to east and central Africa.
In a move to encourage transit of the cargo through Naivasha, KPA extended storage period to 30 days. At the port, transit countries are allowed a free storage period of 9 days, which was extended to 15 days for a period of 90 days starting this month.
The Sh6.9 billion dry port facility commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta on December 17 last year cuts the distance between Mombasa and Kampala by 46 per cent.
Traditionally, Ugandan imports and exports travel a distance of 1,144 kilometers between Mombasa and Kampala along the Northern Corridor. SGR reduces the distance by about 527 kilometres.
Uganda is the biggest user of the Port of Mombasa among regional states, accounting for about 82 per cent of transit cargo to the hinterland through the Port of Mombasa.
Annual total transit traffic to the land-locked country stands at above 7.89 million tonnes, making it predominant transit destination through the Port of Mombasa.
Both Uganda and South Sudan have been given parcels of land by the government within the proximity of the Naivasha ICD. The parcels are ideal for cargo marshalling and other logistical investment.
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