Category: Business

Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) has promised to work on a request by Zanzibar government to facilitate the flow of products from the isle to the East African markets without obstacles.

TMEA country Director, Mr John Ulanga said that his office takes the matter seriously and that it will make sure Zanzibar products enter the East African markets without problems.

He admitted that there have been low turnout of Zanzibar traders in various trade exhibitions, which involve East African countries and that it has been difficult to promote Zanzibar products at international level.

The TMEA boss was responding to the plea from Zanzibar Minister for Trade, Industries and Marketing Amina Salum Ally who visited TMEA head offices in Dar es Salaam. She asked TMEA to promote Zanzibar products to Tanzania mainland and other East African countries. She said Zanzibar products must be consumed as products from Tanzania once they enter into East African and International markets.

“I would like to ask TMEA to clear the way for products from Zanzibar into East African market and beyond,” she said. She added that for Tanzania to realize industrial development, both Zanzibar and Tanzania mainland must participate and benefit from businesses “We can only move forward and realize industrial development by opening markets for products from both sides and manage to penetrate into international markets, this will help to attract investors in Zanzibar and other areas” she said.

The TMEA boss said his office will work on the matter and make sure Zanzibar participates in various trade and business activities. Recently TMEA offered 200bn/- to Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) and Zanzibar National Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (ZNCCIA) for building capacity among its people.

TMEA is an East African not-for profit Company Limited by guarantee established in 2010 to support the growth of trade – both regional and international – in East Africa. The company is focused on ensuring gains from trade results in tangible gains for East Africans.

The restoration of trade relations between Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to boost freight forwarding companies’ capacity to re-employ about 6,000 workers who were previously laid off.

The workers fell victim after the logistics companies opted to reduce the number of employees in order to reduce operation costs following the drop in cargo volume through the Dar es Salaam port.

Among other factors, the companies diverted their consignments to other ports, such as Mombasa. Cargo traffic through the port dropped by 13.3 per cent in March, this year, compared to the same period last year.

Cargo to and from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia dropped by 14.4 per cent and 27.9 per cent, respectively.

The market segments of the two countries contributed about 60 per cent of the port’s transit market share. But, a new chapter was opened after DRC President Joseph Kabila visited the country on Tuesday this week during which he and his host, President John Magufuli, sorted out some of the challenges that afflicted the traders of the two countries.

Yesterday, Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFFA) described the move by Dr Magufuli to foster stronger ties with DR Congo as ‘new hope’ for their businesses. “We are now expecting that our member companies would bring back their 6,000 workers whom they laid off,” the secretary general of TAFFA, Mr Tony Swai, said.

Mr Swai said the recent development over modalities in using the port would open up the doors for business people, not only from the DRC but also elsewhere. “On behalf of the association, I thank President Magufuli for facilitating and attracting the Congolese traders to revert to Dar es Salaam port,” he said.

He pointed out that the decision was welcome since the Dar port was fundamental for the country’s economic growth. “President Kabila when he came here he said the port was not only ours,” he recalled.

“I commend Dr Magufuli for extending the grace period for DRC-destined cargo from 14 to 30 days in which cargo at the port will be exempted,” he said. He added that this was among challenges that deterred the traders from using the port.

He praised Dr Magufuli for improving the central railway line. The railway is not capable of carrying more cargo to Kigoma and neighbouring countries. He said the move would help in addressing delays in moving cargo from Dar es Salaam port to other destinations, considering that Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) currently has enough cargo wagons. “We would encourage our members now to use the railway to transport their goods,” he pledged.

The decision to make Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB) serve the traders at the port was also a good idea, according to him. He said that since the bank has arranged to work from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm and could extend more time for service if there could be congestion of cargo at the port.

“He has done a very good job, though there are some minor challenges that he also promised to address. We support him,” he said.

Trade volumes between Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have significantly surged from 23.1 billion/- in 2009 to 393.6 billion/- last year with the latter pledging to continue using the Dar es Salaam Port for transportation of its imports and exports.

It is against the backdrop of the booming business that the government, through the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), has extended the grace period for DRC-destined cargo from 14 to 30 days in which cargo at the port will be exempted from storage charges.

“Almost 50 per cent of our businesses in Eastern DRC are conducted through the Dar es Salaam Port and we will continue using the facility.

The Government of Congo is equally happy that some challenges faced the harbour in past years have been solved in recent months,” DRC President Joseph Kabila assured President John Magufuli in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The visiting leader, who arrived in the country on Monday for a three-day state visit at the invitation of President Magufuli, made the remarks shortly before laying a foundation stone for the one-stop structure in downtown Dar es Salaam aimed at boosting operations at the port.

Construction of the 130bn/- facility, undertaken by the TPA, started in August 2012 and set to be completed by December this year, where all responsible port players will be under one-roof to ease clearing of cargo. The 35-storey structure is currently the highest building in East and Central Africa.

President Kabila assured his host of increased shipment from his country given improved production of copper from between 100,000 and 150,000 tonnes in the 1990s to around 800,000 and 1,200,000 tonnes at present “Your Excellency; the challenge now is not the volume of cargo but rather handling.

We need to improve our infrastructures for quality transportation” he stated.

President Kabila said plans were underway in his country to improve Kalemie, Momba and Uvira ports along Lake Tanganyika to improve transportation of cargo from DRC to Kigoma and eventually to Dar es Salaam port through the central railway.

President Kabila on the other hand hinted on the need to introduce direct flights from Tanzania to DRC.

“In the past, Air Tanzania had direct flights from Dar es Salaam to Lubumbushi and I think this should be re-introduced. I learned yesterday on a local television that you recently bought two aircrafts and I did the same; so we now have four planes,” he joked.

He made the remarks after the Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, Professor Makame Mbarawa, who hinted on the introduction of the direct flights between the two countries.

President Magufuli noted that the volume of DRC cargo through Tanzania increases at an average of 10.6 per cent per annum, where 15,927 containers from the vast country passed through the port last year alone.

“The government has taken both soft and bold decisions to address problems that were encountered by businesspersons at the harbour and I can assure you that efficiency has significantly improved,” President Magufuli assured his guest. He added; “In the past it used to take up to three weeks to transport consignment through Tanzania but now it would take just three days.”

Dr Magufuli noted that apart from improvements at the harbour, the government had reduced non-tariff barriers along the transportation route by reducing the number of weighbridges.

“We have now decided that there will be only three computerised weigh bridges at Vigwaza, Manyoni and Nyakahura,” Dr Magufuli remarked.

However, President Magufuli asked President Kabila to deal with some dishonest customs officials in DRC whom he blamed for frustrating Congolese businesspersons using the Dar es Salaam Port.

Earlier at the State House, the two presidents witnessed signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries for exploration of oil and natural gas in Lake Tanganyika.

The agreement was inked by the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Professor Sospeter Muhongo, and DRC Minister for Energy, Mr Ngoyi Mukena.

The two leaders also discussed on the possibility of connecting an oil pipeline from DRC to the envisaged pipeline from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga Port in Tanzania. Just like Uganda, DRC has discovered oil in the western part of Lake Albert.