Kenya scores poorly in East Africa Community logistics survey

East African Affairs Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie. A report says some indicators in which Kenya ranks poorly against EAC partners include timely delivery of shipments. (Photo: File/Standard)

Kenya is ranked fourth in the East Africa community behind Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania as far as performance of its logistics industry is concerned.

This is according to ratings in the East Africa Logistics performance Survey 2014 that is being officially launched today by the Shippers Council of Kenya.

Rwanda is ranked in the first position with a score of 3.52, followed by Uganda in second place with a score of 3.07. Tanzania comes in third with an average score of 2.89 while Kenya and Burundi are ranked at position 4and 5, with scores of 2.82 and 2.78 respectively.

Some of the indicators on which Kenya ranks poorly include timely delivery of shipments, competence and quality of logistics services, percentage of shipment physically inspected, transparency in conducting customs valuations, manner in which trade disputes are handled and incidence of corruption and rent-seeking.

However, it performed very well in areas such as the efficiency of good clearance process, level of preparedness of shippers to undertake international trade, security of cargo while in transit, communicating information when trade regulations change and quality of transport and ICT infrastructure.

“For Kenya to improve its ranking in logistics performance, measures have to be put in place to increase investments in infrastructure, improve services delivered by both private sector entities and State agencies involved in the goods clearance process and an attitude change in the level of preparedness of shippers to effectively fulfil their obligations in international trade transactions,” the report says.

The logistics performance of individual EAC Partner States is rated using 11 key indicators and individual country scores aggregated across all respondents, resulting in a single average score for each indicator.

For the region to become competitive, the report recommends development of regulations that facilitate and encourage private-public partnerships, especially for large regional infrastructure projects such as ports and railroads.

Global economy

There is need for a well-functioning specialised logistics infrastructure to ease freight handling, streamline inspection processes, and provide value-added services in areas closer to ports, airports and border crossings. This report advances some recommendations that are critical to the improvement of the logistics performance of EAC Partner States and their related ability to promote international trade and spur economic growth.

The findings of this logistics performance survey for East Africa focuses on logistics drawn on a set of data collected over a period of four months beginning February to May 2014 from freight forwarding and Shippers companies in East Africa.

The survey tracks specific quantitative indicators of logistics performance in terms of cost, time and complexity of executing trade transactions which EAC countries can use to target policy actions to improve logistics and monitor their progress.

Its findings are expected to spur public and private agencies that have direct or indirect power over logistics performance to focus attention on reducing sources of delays so as to improve the ability of the region to effectively compete in today’s global economy.

It recommends that EAC governments will need to sufficiently invest in transport infrastructure and provide an enabling environment for private sector to provide more efficient transport and logistics services.