A unified approach for clearing goods at the port of Mombasa and along the Northern Corridor will be adopted by Kenya this week, in efforts to restructure transport operations.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta will launch the Port of Mombasa and Northern Corridor Charter at Berth 1 on June 30.

Under the charter, institutions with operations at the port and along the corridor — the Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Revenue Authority and Kenya Bureau of Standards — will be guided by key performance indicators.

“The charter will establish a permanent basis of collaboration that will bind the port community to perform specific actions, and collective obligations under set targets and time lines,” said Justus Nyarandi, general manager of KPA.

Inefficient trade corridors, transport costs make up 4 per cent of the cost of goods. However, constraints at the port of Mombasa and along the Northern Corridor drive transport costs to about 30 per cent of the cost of goods.

Past attempts to address challenges at the port have focused only on the Kenya Ports Authority and excluded other statutory bodies and private sector players who are an important part of trade facilitation.
The  new charter will address issues of alignment among port community members in discharging their mandates in trade facilitation, insufficient capacity and an ineffective operational model at both the port terminal and hinterland transport channels. It will also cover the time taken to clear goods, insecurity, non–tariff barriers along the Northern Corridor, and corruption and unethical practices at the port.

READ: Kenya reworks port operations

The charter has six goals: Transforming Mombasa port into a high-performing landlord port by 2016; achieving an average of 120,000km coverage per truck per annum; growing cargo offtake by rail to above 30 per cent of throughput by June 2016; increasing liquid bulk holding capacity to 11,000,000 metric tonnes by December 2014; integrating all port community members’ systems into the Kenya National Electronic Single Window System by December 2014; and achieving 70 per cent cargo throughput through the green channel.

Over the past five years, Mombasa port’s traffic throughput has grown by an average of 7.5 per cent per annum — from 16.4 million tonnes in 2008 to 21.9 million tonnes in 2012.

Launched in Kenya recently, the Single Electronic Window System will be recast to ensure that EAC revenue authorities are integrated for information sharing, and to facilitate the release of cargo at the first point of entry.

READ: Cargo clearance system to save $150m

Chris Kiptoo, TradeMark East Africa Kenya’s country representative, said the charter seeks to accelerate the realisation of the potential of the Northern Corridor and spur the region’s economic growth.

“The port charter has identified four distinct but interdependent pillars in the achievement of these goals, which should be implemented six months upon the signing of the port charter,” said Dr Kiptoo.

The first pillar will require KRA to work on a model transforming Mombasa port into a high-performance landlord port through road, rail and pipeline channels.

“This transformation will not only create room for specialised service providers, but also enable KPA to focus on infrastructural adjustments and long-term developments, and handle the projected growth in cargo throughput,” said Dr Kiptoo.

The second pillar will be on port efficiency and will also require KRA to move beyond lengthy manual processes, a wanting IT platform and a near-lethargic work culture.

“KRA will be required to actualise paperless trading through the single window system. The Kenya Electronic Single Window System will allow parties involved in the trade and transport sector to lodge standardised information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export and transit related regulatory requirements,” Dr Kiptoo added.

The third pillar is expected to drive planned initiatives, and the fourth pillar will facilitative regulation and oversight engagement of the trade process.

“All these pillars will be implemented by the stakeholders involved within six months of signing of the charter,” he said.