Covid-19 hit cuts transport sector growth by 8 per cent

Nairobi Expressway road construction along Mombasa Road [David Gichuru, Standard]

The transport sector fell 7.8 per cent last year, according to new data that shows the full impact of Covid-19 on the local industry.

The just-released Economic Survey captures the sector’s decline marked by low petroleum consumption and low vehicle imports in the wake of the pandemic that left planes, Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) and trains grounded for the better part of the year.

“In 2020, the sector performance was constrained by the Covid-19 pandemic containment measures, including restriction of movement between countries and counties, social distance in public service vehicles and arrangements of working remotely,” said Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani while releasing the data yesterday.

“Consequently, the value of output from the transport and storage sector declined by 5.2 per cent to Sh1.97 billion in 2020, a reversal from the 10.7 per cent growth registered in 2019.”

The statistics showed that the quantity of petroleum products fell by 11.6 per cent to 5,514.3 million litres. Consumption of light diesel, on the other hand, fell by three per cent to stand at 2,143.5 thousand metric tonnes last year.

“The total volume of white petroleum products transported through the pipeline declined by 3.1 per cent to 6,806 thousand cubic metres in 2020.” The number of motor vehicles imported reduced by 14 per cent to 94, 569 units in the period under review. Air transport was one of the hardest-hit sectors in the country, with the volume of commercial air traffic passengers falling 62.5 per cent to 4.5 million.

This is as the number of domestic passengers flowing through the various airports decreased by 53.1 per cent to 2.3 million, while international passengers reduced by 70.4 per cent to 2.1 million in the period under review.