Kenya Port Authority has opened a liaison office in Burundi to facilitate business. Business people who use the Port of Mombasa will no longer need to go there for their goods. They can get these in Burundi without any movement.-Yves Didier Irakoze
Mohamed A. Juma: “Clients will no longer make a long journey to pay for accommodation, stays, and port charges for their cargoes in Kenya. Only what they will do is to come here in our office at Bujumbura and pay them.”©Iwacu
According to Mohamed A. Juma, Country Representative (Burundi), the main motivation to launch this liaison bureau here in Burundi was to reduce the distance for clients to reach their cargoes at Mombasa Port. “Clients will no longer make a long journey to pay for accommodation, stays, and port charges for their cargoes in Kenya. Only what they will do is to come here in our office at Bujumbura and pay them,” states Mohamed. He adds that it will be a big advantage to Burundian beneficiaries because it will reduce their expenses especially in terms of import and export. “For example, a Burundian businessman can import a container from China and use Mombasa Port. Then, our office will follow up the container and control very closely every process and operations till here in Burundi. We will provide information that businessmen will seek in our Bureau,” points out Mohamed. He also mentions that this idea to set up a Kenya Port Authority liaison office in EAC countries is to give a big and good image of EAC. “We have an office at Kampala (Uganda), Kigali in Rwanda, in Burundi and in the future we expect to open other offices in Congo and South Sudan,” he indicates.
Business people get much advantage of KPA
According to Aimé Mananda, Director of Burundi Cement Company, since we have started to be a partner with KPA office, we have more facilities and advantages than in other ports. “Before, we were a partner with Dar-Es-Salam Port, but the process was somehow slow and it took much time to get our merchandises. Now, we are satisfied with the way we work with KPA,” declares Mananda. Mombasa Port is much quicker, their computer system is more efficient and the time is shorter and more flexible. He also adds that in Kenya you can predict the cost of the cargo very easily because it is constant. It is worth mentioning that KPA has just removed the transit bond, business people no longer pay a transport guarantee. “We Burundian business people have now many facilities thanks to the establishment of a KPA office at Bujumbura. Its presence will assist us to handle our issues directly here without travelling to Mombasa. KPA will also have an opportunity to master the problems of local operators and submit them to their administration at Mombasa,” concludes Mananda.
IWACU Open Data
