New Vision (Kampala)
KENYA should facilitate Mombassa Port to operate 24 hours chairman of the Commonwealth Business Forum and an industrialist James Mulwana has suggested.
Mulwana said the port was not operating 24 hours because of lack of modern equipment and personnel to clear the goods faster.
“Clearance and discharging of goods is slow at the port, yet in East Africa, we import 70% and export less,” he said at the East Africa International Business Forum in Kigali, recently.
“As a result, a number of ships are being diverted to other ports, which increases the cost of doing business,” Mulwana said in a presentation on the theme “Trade Facilitation in East Africa. One Market, One Destination.”
He said the EAC should put in place policies to facilitate trade and speed up the growth of the region’s economies.
“If clearing of goods takes weeks, this increases the costs to the manufacturer, the trader and the customer who does not get the product at the required time.”
The Commonwealth Business Council director for international trade, David Wakerford, advised landlocked countries like Uganda and Rwanda to identify areas where there is need for improvement.
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