Tanzanian ports locking Kenya out of regional trade

Containers at the Port of Mombasa

The vibrant expansion of Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port and the Djibouti port are posing the biggest threat to the growth of Mombasa port, a new report says.

The 2018 Africa Ports report by audit firm PriceWaterHouseCoopeers (PWC) has noted that the Tanzania government’s determined investment in the Dar port, and the development of other ports in Tanga and Bagamoyo, has greatly shut out Mombasa port as the dominant trade hub in the region. As a result, neighbours in the hinterland such as Uganda and Rwanda are now preferring the Tanzanian ports as transit points for cargo.