The permanent secretary (PS) in the ministry of transport, Professor Godius Kahyarara
TRA, formerly used to get a total of 1.3 ten/- per month as revenue collections from ports, but the Authority is currently collecting up to 3trn/- from the sea gates
By Senior Reporter VALENTINE OFORO
TANZANIA has successfully managed to increase revenue gains from the country’s annual goods and services exports from $9 million to $16 million during a period of four years of President Samia Suluhu Hassan leadership.
The permanent secretary (PS) in the ministry of transport, Professor Godius Kahyarara said the impressive record resulted from transformative leadership of President Samia, especially in improving availability and quality of the transportation sector, among others.
He said, a report released last month by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) depicted that annual revenues from the exportation of goods and services in Tanzania have leapfrogged to the mentioned extent, signaling good omen for the Tanzania’s economy.
He noted that, President Samia has worked positively to ensure the availability of enough quality transportation infrastructures, including ports, railways and roads, thus snowballing smooth transits of cargos and services.
“For instance, when President Samia comes to power, the Mtwara port was with cargo handling capacity of 200,000 tons annually, but after expansion, the facility is currently taking care of at least 2.4 million tons,” he said.
He said implementation of projects for expansion of cargo handling capacity at different sea gates have played a great role to advance the country’s exports rates hence increasing revenues.
“The port of Dar es Salaam was with capacity to handle 18 million tons in a year, but currently the facility is taking care of 28 million tons, whereby the port of Tanga which was formerly used to handle 300,000 tons has been boosted to handle 1.2 million tons,” he detailed.
The development, he noted, has enabled the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to collect increased statutory revenues from the sector.
“TRA, formerly used to get a total of 1.3 ten/- per month as revenue collections from ports, but the Authority is currently collecting up to 3trn/- from the sea gates,” he informed.
The Don hailed President Samia Suluhu Hassan for her transformative leadership in boosting the transportation sector, expressed high optimism that the sector will continue contributing highly to the state coffer.
“Currently ports facilitate 98 percent of cargo transit in Tanzania, thus expansion and upgrading of the facilities will help to stimulate trade undertakings in diverse economic sectors in the country hence boosting the country’s economy into further heights,” he observed.
Speaking recently in Dodoma Capital City, the TPA director general, Mr Plasduce Mbossa expressed that the Authority was implementing several key projects, under comprehensive national port development plan and the port improvement and management programme.
The Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) Director General, Mr Plasduce Mbossa,
He said, the programmes are being implemented through the 2020 – 2045 plan and the National Projects Management Information System (NPMIS), registered in October 2023 under the name Tanzania Ports Development and Management Programme, TPA, earmarked ten strategic projects.
He mentioned some of the projects as construction of a railway terminal and its network within the port of Dar es Salaam, costing $119.955 million, and installation of two berths with a total length of 500 meters at a cost of $250 million.
The others, include construction of a special island port – Mgao in Mtwara Region for handling hazardous cargo, at a cost of $171 million, as well as facelifting of Kigoma port at a cost of $48.82 million.
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