The Port of Dar es Salaam will receive a loan of USD $305 million to expand its facilities and operations. The Tanzanian port, which is located in the capital, will be looking to improve upon significant losses occurred over the past few years.
Despite being one of the main gateways for landlocked African states such as Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Burundi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo; the port has long struggled to establish itself as an efficient trading hub. The World Bank reported that in 2014, inefficiencies at the port were costing Tanzania and neighbouring countries around $2.6 billion a year.
In a statement, Finance and Planning Minister Phillip Mpango said “The World Bank has agreed to give Tanzania loans for various development projects, including a credit of $305 million for an expansion project at the Dar es Salaam port”. The deal was formally announced following discussions in the capital between President John Magufuli and Makhtar Diop, the World Bank’s vice president for Africa.
The loan is part of a wider $785 million financial project from the World Bank that the Tanzanian government is using to implement development projects for the east African economy.
The Tanzanian government is hoping that the financial injection will allow the port’s capacity to reach 28 million tonnes a year by 2020. The Port of Dar es Salaam currently has a capacity 15 million tonnes.
Earlier this month (January 2017), Tanzania was part of the 12 states that signed a the Jeddah Amendment, which will see new measures added to the Djibouti Code of Conduct.
