Trade and Industry Minister, Francois Kanimba, has decried the delays and bureaucracy that meet traders at the port of Dar es Salaam. He spoke to The New Times by phone from Mombasa yesterday, where he is among the regional ministers on a monitoring tour to identify trade barriers that still exist at the region’s major ports, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. The minister said that there would be a ministerial meeting today to discuss and come up with measures to eliminate trade barriers in order to facilitate trade. “We have seen that there are problems of delays and bureaucracy at Dar Port, where it takes between 15-20 days to clear cargo. This is a big problem affecting traders,” he complained. He said that there was a problem of capacity, citing the fact that the volume of cargo that the port dealt with was huge compared to the number of officials working at the port. The Executive Secretary of the Rwanda Truck Drivers Association, Theodore Murenzi, who is part of the monitoring team, noted that as traders, they were optimistic that the barriers would be eliminated. “Even at the Mombasa port, Non-Trade Barriers still exist,” he said by phone. Richard Ndahiro, a Banque Populaire employee, says that the bank imports some equipment through the port, and faces delays as well. “Trade barriers will always add to costs. These costs are then transmitted directly to the final consumers. Therefore I believe if the ministers are meeting to discuss the elimination of the barriers, we shall all benefit,” Ndahiro said.Tanzania’s Minister of Transport, Eng. Omari Nundu, told the delegation that though Dar es Salaam Port was not performing as was expected due to numerous challenges, he was optimistic that they would overcome all the challenges. “A lot of improvements have been made at the port by the government and the Tanzania Ports Authority,” affirmed the minister, adding that plans were underway to develop Greenfield ports in Bagamoyo, Tanga and Mtwara. The Director General of Tanzania Ports Authority, Ephraim Mgawe, informed the ministers that use of Internal Container Depots (ICDs) since December 2007 and the introduction of 24/7 port operation since 2008 have had a positive impact on operations
