Tanzania woos Kinshasa with a dry port for DRC-bound cargo
Saturday July 29 2023
Dar es Salaam Port, Tanzania. PHOTO | ROB BEECHEY | WORLD BANK
Tanzania is seeking a prime site for a dry port to provide rapid Customs processing and transportation of DRC’s cargo through the port of Dar es Salaam, according to the Ministry of Finance.
The announcement follows a meeting between Minister for Finance Mwigulu Nchemba and DR Congo Minister for Transport and Communications Ekila Libombo in Kinshasa late last week, where the two states agreed to widen cooperation in transportation.
Mr Libombo said that Congo civil aviation authorities are processing an application by Tanzania’s national airline, Air Tanzania Company Ltd to allow direct flights to Kinshasa.
DR Congo plans to build a road connecting Lubumbashi with the eastern cities to the port of Kalemie on Lake Tanganyika from the Karema Port on the other side of the lake in Tanzania.
Read: Tanzania woos DRC with cargo clearance deal
Karema is currently under $20 million expansion and modernisation involving construction of 22,500 square meters of heavy pavements, tides breaker, a multi-purpose 150-metre-long berth capable of accommodating up to two vessels, each with 75 metres in length. Other structures are the dredging and deepening of the port entrance, office building, passengers lounge and a general cargo warehouse.
Kinshasa is working with Tanzania to construct the railway section from Uvinza to Kigoma Port thence to Kindu in eastern DR Congo. The DRC government is conducting feasibility studies on the railway.
"When completed, the railway will speed up cargo delivery from Dar es Salaam through the proposed dry port in Tanzania to DRC," Mr Libombo said.
Tanzania, Burundi and the DRC have signed an agreement to seek funding from the Africa Development Bank for construction of the 282-km Standard Gauge Railway from Uvinza (Tanzania) to Musongati and Gitega (Burundi) and onto eastern DR Congo.
Tanzania is targeting more business and investments with the Democratic Republic of Congo through cargo flows between Tanzania’s Indian Ocean ports and Lubumbashi in eastern Congo.
Read: Samia woos investors to Tanzania
DRC had established a liaison office at the Dar es Salaam Port to facilitate Congo’s new shipping line, the state-owned Lignes Maritimes Congolaises.
Tanzania is attracting DR Congo shipping and transport companies to using its Indian Ocean and Lake Tanganyika ports, targeting the fast-expanding business in DRC a its demand for shipping services.