TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) have signed a 3 year grant extension agreement worth US$ 1.05 million for Strengthening and Enhancing the Northern Corridor Transport Observatory. TMEA has been supporting the Transport Observatory project since 2012.
The Northern Corridor Transport Observatory is a performance monitoring tool with an online portal to track and monitor the performance of the Northern Corridor. The observatory has three components namely the main observatory, the GIS component, and the northern corridor performance dashboard.
The main Transport Observatory tool monitors 35 performance indicators on a regular basis while the dashboard is used in monitoring the implementation of the Port Community Charter that commits various stakeholders, both public and private to increase efficiency at the Mombasa Port and along the transport logistics chain in Kenya on a weekly, quarterly basis.
Through these monitoring tools, the NCTTCA Secretariat is able to track the performance of the Corridor as per indicators categories namely; volume and capacity, transport rates/costs, transit time/delays, efficiency and productivity, intra-regional trade and road safety and provide evidence-based recommendations to the stakeholders and policymakers.
The Northern Corridor, a multimodal transport system which includes the Port of Mombasa, roads, railways, pipeline, inland waterways, border stations, weighbridges, transit parking yards and inland container depots designated by the member States, links the landlocked countries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda to the sea port of Mombasa-Kenya.
With the new financing, the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority will improve monitoring of the Northern Corridor performance with regards to movement of people and goods.
The Mombasa Community Charter was recently launched in 2014 in abide to improve infrastructure and efficiency along the Northern Corridor.
Through a stakeholder’s think-tank, operational policy and regulatory issues were identified, in a process that led to a formation of a ten-member committee that involved the heads and senior officers of lead stakeholders institutions focused on disregarding the “silo mentality” and focus on trade facilitation first without compromising on their mandates.
The key performance indicators (KPI) in the charter have been obtained through an all inclusive process focused at developing a measurable and enforceable charter with a performance dashboard, an implementation mechanism, management and reward and sanctions.
According to the stakeholders, the Mombasa Port Corridor Charter has come at the right time when Kenya Ports Authority is undertaking major Port Reforms to transform the Port of Mombasa into a World Class Regional Hub.
The MPCC intended to establish a permanent framework of collaboration that bound the Port Community to specific actions, collective obligations, targets and timelines. It also sought to complement the individual institutions service charters by way of adoption where appropriate, in a holistic approach along the Mombasa Corridor.
The other key goals was to introduce education and publicize to cargo owners, traders, labour unions, civil society and the general public the best industry practices and the guiding principles, and inculcate acceptance behavioramong all citizens participating in international trade: and
Also the charter was meant to develop and implement a self-monitoring mechanism to ensure implementation of collective community obligations. The senior managers of the participating Port Community entities shall voluntarily submit themselves to sanctions for breach of any of the collective obligations.
