TANZANIA TO BUILD ANOTHER CARGO SHIP IN LAKE VICTORIA

Mwanza, TANZANIA

The government of Tanzania plans to construct a cargo ship with the capacity to carry 50 tonnes to only ply in Lake Victoria, according to Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned Marine Services Company Limited (MSCL), Eric Hamissi.

The lake Victoria water body is shared by Tanzania, Uganda as well as Kenya with more than half of it being occupied by Tanzania in proportionality followed by Uganda.

Hamisi said tender for the construction work will be announced next month.

He said that currently, MSCL owns a wagon ferry—Mv Umoja that has a carrying capacity of 19 tonnes of wagons.

Hamissi made the statement here yesterday when briefing members of the ruling party's central committee who visited various projects implemented by MSCL in Mwanza city.

He informed that the government also plans to build another cargo ship that will be plying in Lake Tanganyika. He said the new ship is expected to dominate cargo transportation within East and Central African region as Tanzania is bordered by almost all inland water bodies in the area.

“These cargo ships will ease transportation within the country but also transfer cargos to neigbouring countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We expect to earn a lot from the businesses,” he noted.

He pointed out that company's ships can make good business by transporting cotton seed cake from Tanzania to Uganda and other countries and at the same time come back with iron sheets from Uganda.

According to him, the company also anticipates to have a ship to tap marine tourism potential as the industry is one of the sources of the country's economic drivers.

“We have not properly used our marine potentials to promote tourism in the country. We should have at least one ship for the purpose,” he said adding that it is high time the country exploits the opportunities for economic development.

He noted that the company should go beyond and serve as a serious player in promoting tourism industry in the country in its operations.

The CEO revealed that the state-owned company is working on a plan to start ship operations in the Indian Ocean between Tanzania and Comoros to tap the opportunity of transporting goods from Comoros to other countries within East Africa.

Comoros is closer to Tanzania ports than the ports in Mombasa, Kenya and Durban in South Africa, he said. - Africa