TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) have signed a financing agreement worth US$ 1.05m to enable the agency to collect and analyse data on transportation of goods and persons along the corridor, information that will be vital for decision making.
Acording to a release the TMEA was represented by Country Director for Kenya, Ahmed Farah, while NCTTCA was represented by Ag. Executive Secretary, Fred Tumwebaze, and the money will be disbursed to the NCTTFA Secretariat over a 3-year period (2018 – 2021).
The Northern Corridor is a key transport route in East and Central Africa. The main Northern Corridor artery is served by a combination of transport modes and infrastructure facilities that include: the Maritime Port of Mombasa; road network; rail network; inland water routes; inland container depots; and, an oil pipeline. All these form part of the Northern Corridor infrastructure used in facilitating the flow of goods across Member States.
It is estimated that of 96% of goods from the Port of Mombasa are transported by road leaving the remaining percentage to be through the railway mode, inland waterways and pipelines.
NCTTCA member countries include Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DR Congo.
NCTTCA oversees the corridor monitoring framework known as Northern Corridor Transport Observatory, which is a performance monitoring tool that informs interventions geared towards reducing costs and delays of transportation and other related logistic a, challenges.
With the new financing, the Authority will improve monitoring of the Northern Corridor performance with regards to movement of people and goods.
It will adopt modern technologies, including mobile based and online systems, to enhance its capability to monitor trade and transport flows, bottlenecks and impact of interventions.
Data collected will support evidence-based advocacy and decision making. This initiative will complement monitoring the implementation of the Mombasa Port Charter.
NCTTCA collects data from over 20 stakeholders in all the member countries, the contributors being revenue authorities, roads authorities, ports and railway authorities, transport associations and private sector institutions closely affiliated to trade and transport.
An alternative transport network serving the landlocked Great lakes region is through Tanzania, in the Central Corridor. The 1,400 km-long corridor uses lake transport on the Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma in Tanzania, and then road or rail to Dar-Es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean.
