Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) is a parastatal public corporation acting under the aegis of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, that has the responsibility "to manage and operate" the seaports and lake ports of the country of Tanzania.[1][2] The TPA is located in Dar es Salaam. It is a member of the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa.
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The TPA's main Indian Ocean ports are Dar es Salaam, Mtwara, and Tanga; minor seaports serving coastal traffic include Lindi, Kilwa Masoko, Mafia Island, Bagamoyo, Pangani and Kwale. The Port of Zanzibar is administered separately by the Zanzibar Port Corporation.[3]
The principal port of Tanzania is Dar es Salaam, which handles 95% of the country's international sea trade. most of the ports cargo handling and clearance depends on labor extensively. The port is divided into two parts (TICTS and TPA), due to lack of handling support the TPA has authorized TICTS privately owned by Hong Kong investors to receive and clear on behalf of this port. Lately due to the increased number of import and export containers TPA has introduces several Internal Container Depots (ICD). Namely AMI ICD, AZAM ICD, MUKUBA ICD, KICD, DICD and others. Due to the lack of transport means, transportation of imports and exports highly depends on private road transporters. Some of these transporters are Swift motors, Trans cargo, Madina transport and lately up coming transporters such as R.J. Motichand trans, Koru freight and others.
This port suffers from extensively inefficiency, corruptions,Technology and system break downs. System break downs go up to 24 hours to 72 hours sometimes leading to long trucks lining up for container clearance. Corruption is also very high effecting the custom duties paid by both importer and exporters. Due to the negative balance of payment the government has reduce taxes on exports in order to encourage exporter and enable the countries exports to be more competitive in the international market. Agriculture products are the main export materials while technological products are highly depended on advanced overseas countries i.e. China.
This port has recently improved in terms of technology and IT support. It has also launched their online website offering tracking system for clearing agents and importers,careers support by offering various certificates and diplomas regarding the port handling and clearance.
The harbor at the Port of Mtwara was deepened during 1948-1954, and railways built, as part of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme. The port is functional and underutilized.[5]
Tanzania Ports Authority operates on three Tanzanian lakes:[6][7][8]
Major TPA ports on Lake Victoria include Mwanza, Bukoba, Kemondo Bay, Musoma and Nansio. There is a TPA office in Mwanza. There are 20 other Lake Victoria ports with minor activity.
Principal lake ports on Tanganyika include Kigoma and Kasanga, with an office in Kigoma; there are 15 smaller ports.
Lake Nyasa/Lake Malawi has four important ports, at Itungi, Mbamba Bay, Liuli and Manda; there is a Kyela District office. There are up to 10 other smaller TPA ports on the lake.