Importance of Mombasa Port Expansion Highlighted

A donor conference, aimed to raise money needed for the improvements of Mombasa Port, was held last Friday, May 22nd, in Mombasa with JICA, Development Bank of South Africa, AfDB, DFID, the World Bank, the EU Delegation to Kenya and USAID taking the part.

The conference, organized by TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) together with the Government of Kenya and the National Treasury, showed highest priority infrastructure requirements needed to transform the port into a world class facility.

Speaking at the conference, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, Henry Rotich noted: “The government of Kenya is keen on achieving its vision 2030 goals and to do this, investments are required in infrastructure that will facilitate growth for the country.”

“The Mombasa port is a gateway to trade in the region and with increased volumes of trade, investments are required to ensure that it can cope with the demands of modern trade. This ultimately will make our country and the region competitive,” added Rotich.

Over 50% of the funds needed for the expansion include dredging and expansion of the port berths 1-14 and relocation of Kipevu Oil Terminal, which is currently in the middle of a very busy operations area and therefore limits the size of vessels that it can handle.

The discussions also looked into the rehabilitation of the wharves in order to provide capacity for handling coastal trading vessels and other vessels of lower draft; multi-purpose and RoRo (Roll-on/roll-off) vessels; as well as the development of the G-Section area that will be used for storage of motor vehicles.