High costs at Dar port keeping Ugandan traders at bay

Ugandan traders have raised concern over the high cost of clearing goods through the Dar es Salaam port as compared to the Mombasa one in Kenya.

According to Mr Lukymuzi Wangi, the head of Ugandan traders' delegation that had toured the Tanzanian port on Sunday, only 30 per cent of cargo destined to Uganda is imported through Dar es Salaam. The rest goes through Mombasa.

The traders were part of a business delegation that accompanied President Yoweri Museveni during his two-day visit in neighbouring Tanzania.

While noting marked improvement in service delivery at the port, Mr Wangi called on the Dar authorities to eliminate non-tariff barriers.

“What a trader needs is lower cost of doing business, lack of bureaucracy as well as security. I am sure that if these are guaranteed, many Ugandan traders will prefer the Dar es Salaam Port to that of Mombasa,” he said.

The Tanzania Ports Authority director-general Deusdedit Kakoko said the agency plans to construct a dry port in Mwanza so that traders from Uganda wouldn’t have to travel to Dar es Salaam to clear their cargo. This will help lower the cost which traders are currently forced to incur, he said.

Mwanza is a port city on the southern shores of Lake Victoria in Northwest Tanzania.