The logistics industry stakeholders have agreed to fast-track the full development and completion of the required amenities at the dry port in Naivasha and Inland Waterways to boost transit trade.
The Northern Corridor Policy Organ Meetings held recently reiterated its commitment to use the Inland Container Depot (ICD) facility at Naivasha as well as the Oil Jetties in Lake Victoria to ensure a faster rebound of the economies of the region.
This renewed commitment was among other resolutions arrived at during the 32nd sitting of the Northern Corridor Council of Ministers and the 49th meeting of the Executive Committee held online to discuss a faster recovery and a more sustainable Transport Logistics system in the wake of Covid 19 disruption.
The virtual meetings with the theme “towards a resilient, smart and responsive corridor for trade and transport logistics” brought together Principal Secretaries and their equivalents; Ministers in charge of Transport matters from all the Northern Corridor Member States of Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda as well as the Minister for EAC and Regional Development of the Republic of Kenya.
The Policy Organs urged all Northern Corridor Member States to embrace technology and commit to the implementation of Single Customs Territory initiatives; as well as a full-fledged roll out of the Regional Electronic Cargo and Drivers Tracking Systems to ease the costs of doing business.
While analyzing the performance of the Northern Corridor, the Transport Observatory data indicated that the aggregate throughput at the Port of Mombasa showed a decline of 5 percent in the Months of January-May 2020, from 14.3 million metric tonnes in Jan-May 2019 to 13.6 metric tonnes in Jan-May 2020.
Imports accounted for 82 percent of the total throughput over the period Jan-May 2020; suggesting unfavourable trade balance. There was also a decline in imports as a share of throughput from 84 percent in January 2020, compared to 80 percent in May 2020; suggesting a contracting in import trade in the countries that use the port of Mombasa. Exports accounted for only 13 percent of total throughput over the five months, increasing from 11 percent in January 2020 to 13 percent in May 2020; an indication that import trade has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as opposed to export trade.
While commending the ongoing developments at the Inland Container Depot in Naivasha, the Oil Jetty at Kisumu Kenya and Kawuku in Uganda to transport oil using the Lake Victoria and the efforts being made to revamp the meter gauge railways within the Northern Corridor region, the Policy Organs directed the Northern Corridor Secretariat to carry out a survey and conduct studies to determine the necessary requirements for maximum utilization of the ICD facility at Naivasha and the Inland Waterways on Lake Victoria.
Notably, a larger share of imported cargo through the port of Mombasa is containerized cargo accounting for 66 percent of the total containerized imports for the five months (Jan-May 2020).
Kenya accounted for the bulk of the total throughput at 64 percent; whereas about 36 percent of the total throughput was for the transit market. Uganda remains the highest destination of the transit market through the port of Mombasa, accounting for 3.28 million metric tonnes during the period January-May 2020.
Reports also indicated a drop in the demand for crude oil, which has been attributed to the Coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent cut in oil production by oil-producing countries. Since May 2020, OPEC countries have been reducing output by over nine million barrels per day after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the global demand for crude oil.
The ICD at Naivasha is located about 572 Km west of the port of Mombasa and 120 km from Nairobi on the Mombasa – Nairobi – Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) route. The ICD is linked to the Nairobi-Narok highway that connects to Kisumu and also to the Isebania Board point.
The 45,000-square-meter Naivasha Inland Container Depot can handle about two million tonnes of cargo annually. The ICD is expected to mainly handle cargo destined to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Transit Time for trains from Mombasa to Naivasha is about 10 hours. The use of ICD facility at Naivasha is expected to reduce the number of trucks on some of the road sections along the Corridor and decongest the ICD in Nairobi.
Generally, the ICD at Naivasha handles both containerized and loose cargo. Currently, cargo is mainly delivered to the ICD by the Standard Gauge Railway and by road. A total of 2,245 TEUs that were hauled by train between May and June 2020 were imports, compared to the 70 TEUS that were cargo for exports. A total of 24 trains made calls to the ICD with import cargo during the period, while export cargo registered only six trains. The export trains operated below full capacity due to low volumes of export cargo.
The start of operation of the Naivasha ICD coincided with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic partly accounting for the slow growth in performance.
