Cargo transit costs and logistical issues on the central and northern corridors continue to hamper cross-border trade among East African Community (EAC) member States.

This was one of the main takeaways from an East African Business Council (EABC) webinar held last week on both corridors, which connect landlocked EAC countries to the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

Participants pointed to lethargy in implementing initiatives such as the One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) under the Single Custom Territory (SCT).

Jonathan Sessanga, representing the EAC secretariat, blamed "interventions" by partner States for creating new non-tariff barriers besides sub-standard infrastructure at some border points, that cause delays and additional costs for traders.

Read: Traders shift from Northern Corridor to rail on high fuel costs

The Shippers Council of Eastern Africa (SCEA) and Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) cited high road transport rates and disparities in levying road user charges across the EAC partner States among major issues to be addressed.

According to Pauline Ukwalu of the SCEA, road transport rates from Mombasa to Kampala (Uganda) in 2023 stood at $1.97 per container but were lower from Kampala to Mombasa at $1.36. The rates for Kigali (Rwanda), Juba (South Sudan) and Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) were $2.50, $2.60 and $3 respectively.

The SCEA report said cargo transit time from Mombasa to the Uganda border posts of Busia and Malaba went down from 114 and 109 hours in 2020 to 77 and 80 hours in 2022, respectively, but was still below the official targets of 40 hours for Malaba and 45 hours for Busia.

It attributed the delays to "frequent" stops along the corridor on the Kenyan side, mainly due to police and security checks (36 percent), company checks, road conditions and weighbridge issues.

Border post procedures took up just one percent of overall delays, the report said.

The NCTTCA report cited different road transport rates per container from Mombasa to Kampala ($1.88), Kigali ($2.32), Juba ($2.47) and Goma ($3.26). It also included rates for Mombasa to Bujumbura in Burundi ($2.10) and the DR Congo destinations of Butembo ($3.44) and Bunia ($3.90).

The northern corridor report also cited 2023 transit times of 109 hours for Mombasa-Kampala, 112 hours Mombasa-Nimule (South Sudan), 129 hours Mombasa-Kigali and 157 hours Mombasa-Kasindi (DR Congo).

The Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) acknowledged that the port of Dar es Salaam was still lagging in ship waiting times.

Read: Mombasa Port cargo shipments rise amid Dar insufficiency

Vessel waiting times at the port shot up year-on-year in the second half of 2023 to reach 13.6 days by December against 10.6 days in the corresponding month of 2022. This included a jump from 5.8 to 13 days between October and November.

"This is a very big challenge now at the port," CCTTFA representative Emmanuel Rutagengwa said. "Currently there are a lot of ships on outer anchorage at the port and two weeks is too long to have to wait for goods to be offloaded."

He said the situation had been caused by the volume of cargo traffic through the port “doubling in less than 10 years and yet the capacity of the port has not increased proportionally."

Cargo throughput at the port of Dar es Salaam rose from 13.6 million tonnes in 2016 to 24 million tonnes in 2023 compared to Mombasa, where cargo throughput went up from 33.88 million tonnes in 2022 to 35.98 million metric tonnes in 2023.

On the other hand, CCTTFA said the port had succeeded in reducing ship turn-around time from seven to 2.5 days, cargo dwell time from 22 to below seven days, and truck turn-around time from 4.3 to 2.3 hours. Road transport on the central corridor has also been streamlined with police and customs checkpoints cut from 55 to just three, thereby reducing delays, the report said.

Mr Rutagengwa said the introduction of an Electronic Cargo Tracking System has "eliminated the need for physical escorts and reduce the risk of goods disappearing along the way" while OSBPs have helped reduce border crossing times for transit trucks by 55 percent.

The northern corridor report showed that 79.1 percent of cargo coming through the port of Mombasa in 2023 were imports, 13.8 exports and 6.8 percent trans-shipment cargo.

Uganda led by far in transit market share along the northern corridor at 62.34 percent followed by South Sudan (16.82 percent), DR Congo (13.24 percent) and Rwanda (4.56 percent).

Ship turnaround time at Mombasa currently averages 70 hours, which is better than the 75-hour target, and average vessel waiting time is currently 0.8 days. The dwell time for containerised import cargo at Mombasa stands at 85.8 hours against a 60-hour target, the report shows.