Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) was taking a lead in the maritime regional integration strategy by sharing its expertise with the rest of the continent’s ports, it said on Friday.
The authority, which is one of five operating divisions of Transnet Group responsible for functioning of the eight national ports systems, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with several ports in the region.
Kenya Port Authority (KPA) was the fourth to sign, after the Maputo Port Development Company, Namibian Port Authority and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.
The TNPA will later this year extend these agreements to Angola, Tanzania and Sudan.
An objective of the MOUs is to boost intra-regional trade within the Southern African Development Community, which sits at 12 percent.
“There are a number of obstacles hindering the progress of African ports. These include the lack of deep water berths, poor equipment and lack of maintenance and infrastructure, limited or no training, limited capital to develop and port infrastructure that is lacking,” said TNPA’s chief executive Tau Morwe.
The signing of these MOUs put Transnet in a position to share best practices with other countries as well as learn from them in areas in which they operated efficiently, he said.
Durban is Africa’s busiest port. Its container terminal handles about 60 percent of the country’s container volumes.
“This also puts us in a position where we can contribute towards the objectives of the AU 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy – the development of infrastructure and development of skills.”
Morwe indicated his division’s interest in signing with Africa’s powerhouse Nigeria, which recently overtook South Africa to become the continent’s largest economy. But even at second place, South Africa remains its most advanced economy.
“We also need to agree that there are areas in which we compete but also identify areas of collaboration; that is our relationship with Nigeria,” he said.
Unlike the TNPA whose mandate is that of being the national ports landlord, the KPA is landlord and operator.
KPA’s corporate services general manager Justus Nyarandi said its port authority would use TNPA’s expertise in separating the ports into two different entities, landlord and operational divisions.
Nyarandi said Kenya’s strategic and principal port, Mombasa, was busy constructing an additional terminal. The current container terminal is 840m with a capacity of 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). This year, the port was expected to handle more than 1 million TEUs, a sign that it was overstretched, he explained.
“We are fast-tracking the construction of the second terminal and we have decided that it is going to be operated by a private operator.
He said the new operator would be selected through a bidding process and Transnet had been invited to bid.
Through the MOUs, Transnet has started an intensive training programme with Namibian Ports Authority which will include training of tug masters, engineers, marine pilots as well as skipper port operations among other initiatives.