Mombasa-Kampala is most frequently used route for cargo
Containers at Mombasa Port. Commodities are the most transported goods in Uganda. PHOTO | file
What you need to know:
- Plastic & rubbers, metals, machinery and appliances, and textiles are among the most transported goods from Mombasa to Kampala.
- The most frequently transported goods in the region revealed that beverages had 1 percent, machinery and appliances 2 percent, animal & vegetable by products 2 percent, transportation 4 percent, plastic & rubber 4 percent, paper goods 4 percent vegetable products 6 percent.
The Mombasa- Kampala route is the most frequently used in East Africa, accounting for 734 trips according to a new survey by Trade Mark East Africa.
Presenting a paper on regional trade and transport study on September 1 during the sixth high level economic growth forum, Impact and Results Director at TradeMark East Africa, Ms Catherine Nanzigu said the study aimed at analysing traffic flow for commodities along the major trade corridors by different modes of travel in Eastern Africa.
“The data should enable TMEA to better forecast changes in the volume of trade goods,” she said.
Explaining to the participants the purpose of the Origin Destination (OD) study, Ms Nanzigu said the aim was to sample from the full freight traffic collected under the traffic census to paint an accurate picture of freight flows.
“Key variables responded to by the OD study included: origin and destination, trip purpose, journey duration, trip frequency, fuel consumption and journey official and unofficial payments,” she said.
Ms Nanazigu said the Dar-es-Salaam-Kigali route came second with 332 trips representing 8.60 percent, the Dar-es-Salaam-Mwanza route at 244 trips representing 6.30 percent, the Mombasa-Nairobi route with 228 trips, equivalent to 5.9 percent.
“Mtwara-Dar-es-Salaam at 159 trips, Mombasa-Juba at 153, Kampala-Juba with 149 trips, Kampala-Mombasa 147, Nairobi-Kampala at 146 trips, Kampala-Arua City in Uganda with 137 trips, Dar es Salaam-Bujumbura at 136 trips. All these routes are under the Northern Corridor (NC),” she said.
She said the other two trips observed in the top five OD pairs were national in nature: Kampala-Arua 8.7 percent, Kampala –Gulu 8.7 percent.
Ms Nanazigu said the most frequently transported goods in the region revealed that beverages had 1 percent, machinery and appliances 2 percent, animal & vegetable by products 2 percent, transportation 4 percent, plastic & rubber 4 percent, paper goods 4 percent vegetable products 6 percent.
“The others are metals 8 percent, food stuff 8 percent textiles 10 percent, mineral products 17 percent, chemical products 17 percent, all other commodities 17 percent,” she said.
Uganda
The most frequently transported goods in Uganda, Ms Nanazigu said are plastic & rubbers at 6 percent, metals at 6 percent, machinery and appliances at 6 percent, animal & vegetable by products at 6 percent, vegetable products at 13 percent, textiles at 13 percent, mineral products at 13 percent, chemical products at 13 percent and all other commodities 25 percent.
On the future priorities, Ms Nanazigu said with EAC accession DRC needs to be better integrated in the Mombasa port trade network.
