Following the sluggish clearance of consignments at the Dar es Salaam Port by Tanzania International Container Terminal Services Ltd (TICTS), the business stakeholders have unanimously called on the government to halt renewal of the contract with the company citing its ineffectiveness and inefficiency at handling containers leading to a lot of unnecessary problems.

The company is reported to have miserably failed to clear consignments at 37% per annual and lagged at investing in port’s infrastructures to enhance smooth operation, causing trillions in loss of government revenues as stakeholders resorting to neighbouring countries such as Kenya, South Africa and Namibia for efficient and effective services.

The Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFFA) have repeatedly claimed that TICTS’s inefficiency and ineffectiveness prompt congestion of cargos at the Dar es Salaam Port hence more loss to business stakeholders.

Tanzania’s former minister Nazir Karamagi and famous businessman Yogesh Manek with Hong Kong’s company Hutchinson Ports are the partners of TICTS in the business at Dar es Salaam Port.

Sources from corridors of Dar es Salaam port reveal that, despite massive failure to bring about the desired service at the Dar es Salaam port for 20 years, TICTS was awarded a five-year new contract in 2017 to keep live operation at the port.

In 2021 TICTS only served 606,169 20 feet (TEUs) containers, equivalent to 0.8% increment compared to 2020, thus making it fall behind the contract agreement to reach the streak of 37% of cargo served annually.

As TICTS inefficiency cripples the reputation of Dar es Salaam Port, Mombasa Port in Kenya is vying to become the hub of containers and business favourite destination, eyeing to serve over 2 million 20-feet containers annually.

At the same time, Durban Harbor in South Africa plans to increase its cargo uptake to 11 million 20-feet containers (TEU) in the next few years.

“The government should not offer a new contract to TICTS for it has failed to deliver good service for the past 20 years” – John Tarimo, a Dar es Salaam-based businessman importing cargos from China.

“It’s high time for the government to find a new, experienced, international company to operate our containers at the Dar es Salaam Port”.

On top of all that, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has also expressed her dissatisfaction with Dar es Salaam’s Port operation, where she sacked its Director General, Mr Eric Hamissi, on July 4, 2022, and replaced him with Plasduce Mbossa, who vowed to increase efficiency at the Dar es Salaam Port upon taking his new role as the Dar Port Director General.