The Northern Corridor Performance Dashboard report reveals that the cargo throughput passing through the port of Mombasa recorded a decline in the first nine months last year due to Covid 19 pandemic.
The report, done by the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) covering the months of January to September 2020 reveals that the aggregate port throughput registered a marginal decline of 2% from 25.6 million Metric Tonnes (MT) in 2019 to 25.1 million MT in 2020.
The decline was attributed to shrinking trade volumes occasioned by the reduction in economic activities in all countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Imports accounted for 82% of the total throughput for the period while exports accounted for only 13%, transshipments accounted for 6% and restows 0.3%. The share of exports increased by 10% in September 2020 compared to January 2020; an indication that import trade has been harder hit by the COVID-19 pandemic than export trade.
On port productivity and efficiency, the report indicates that Average Container Import Dwell Time improved from 109 hours in July 2020 to 99 hours in September 2020, however a drop compared with the same quarter in 2019. Average ship turnaround time improved, fluctuating from 99 hours in January to 75 hours in September 2020. However, the month of April recorded the longest dwell time at 111 hours.
COVID-19 posed unprecedented challenges with cross-border transit transport and trade almost grinding to a halt
Along the corridor, statistics for the period between January to September indicate that all destinations from Mombasa witnessed higher transit times.
On one hand, transit times from Mombasa to Malaba in Kenya, under Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (RECTS) regime, ranged from 152 hours in January to 132 hours in September, recording the highest in April, May and June with 243, 312, and 237 hours respectively.
Transit times from Mombasa to Busia varied from 90 hours in January to a high 108 hours in September 2020 with April, May and June recording transit times above 300 hours, more than triple the Charter targets.
Based on the Mombasa Port and Northern Corridor Community Charter, the set target for transit time from Mombasa to Malaba is 60 hours by December 2020; and from Mombasa to Busia is 65 hours by December 2020.
Transit times from Mombasa to Elegu increased from 91 hours in January to 161 in September. From Mombasa to Kampala fluctuated from 156 hours in January to 171 hours in September, and Mombasa to Kigali 167 hours in January to 225 in September 2020. Further, the reports reveal that transit times in Burundi went to a high of 282 hours.
The high transit times was brought about by increased traffic at the borders with increased times for processing COVID-19 attestation forms which were made a mandatory requirement for one to traverse in and out of the different territories.
The EAC with support from the TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and in collaboration with key agencies from the private sector among them the Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) launched Regional Electronic Cargo and Drivers Tracking System (RECDTS) to allow seamless flow of the cargo. The system allows the drivers to have an electronic Covid 19 certificate that is recognised across the region.
Last year, Mercy Ireri, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) at Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) said that the drivers have embraced the initiative by acquiring new smart phones. She added that although the system faced some initial challenges, it is now serving drivers better.
This was also affirmed by Mr Robinson Esese, the fleet manager at Danrose Kenya Ltd, a firm that does transit cargo, who has added that most of the drivers had already acquired smartphones that they are using to get test results.
“The system is working without any hitch. The only issue is that transporters are reluctant to move to the Uganda side due to the the coming general elections,” Esese said.
Whereas it took up to 10 days to get tests on manual systems, the Covid 19 tests once carried out allows the driver to continue with the journey and once test return positive they are quarantined in the next test point.
Every step, data and information about a driver is monitored at a common command center in Nairobi being run by the TMEA.
The EAC secretariat developed this application with the funding from European Union, Global Affairs Canada, Danida, Finland, Netherlands and the United Kingdom through TMEA.
This application was conceived to address the challenges manual certificates faced that included multiple testing of truck drivers at border crossing since there was no framework of mutual recognition of testing and test results across borders.
The system enables digital verification of transit documents and travel authorization by law enforcement, customs and immigration at border crossings and other strategic locations along the transit corridors. It also facilitates intuitive analyses of data and surveillance of mobility related to cross border movements for better management of the pandemic in relation to cross border mobile population segments.
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