Cargo containers destined for Uganda through the port of Mombasa will be publicly listed to help ease congestion at the region’s main gateway facility through efficient and timely flow of information.

A special online portal will provide an account of all container shipments bound for Kenya’s largest export market including the date and time of arrival at the port of Mombasa, the consignees and the duration at the facility.

This follows a pact signed between the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to hasten cargo clearance in what is expected to shake up the clearing and forwarding agency business.

READ: Kenya, Uganda to clear goods faster

“People no longer have any excuses not to pick their cargo from Mombasa and most importantly, they do not have to rely on agents or other people thousands of miles away for information regarding their cargo,” URA commissioner customs, Richard Kamajugo said.

“We are bringing information to people at no cost.” Mombasa port has in recent years experienced cargo congestion, which KPA attributed to lack of space following delays by importers and clearing agents to collect containers from the port and the various container freight stations promptly.

Increased trade within the region, driven by a sharp growth in construction, infrastructure development and an emerging middle class has also piled pressure on the port’s operations.

This has affected the performance of the port that is also a bellwether for economic activity in East Africa as it handles imports such as fuel and consumer goods for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia and exports of tea and coffee from the region.

The port handled 6.6 million tonnes of transit cargo in 2013 with land locked Uganda remaining the most frequent destination of goods arriving in Mombasa, taking up 70 per cent share of total transit traffic at the port, KPA data show.

South Sudan was the second biggest destination of transit cargo through the port in 2013.

KPA has already published the first manifest of Uganda-bound cargo which indicated that a total of 1,432 containers destined for the neighbouring country were lying at the port of Mombasa as at March 6.

Although most of containers had stayed at the port for less than a month, 182 of them have been lying at the facility for more than 120 days.