High costs, delays when Rwandan truckers stopped for Coronavirus

Africa Business News for Wednesday 23 September 2020

Source: teastafrican.co.ke

2020-09-23

Rwanda’s cross-border carriers are losing money as the impasse over Covid-19 driver testing continues to drag down the movement of goods from the port of Dar es Salaam.

At the center of the impasse is the decision by the Tanzanian authorities not to accept Rwanda’s Covid-19 certificates, preferring to conduct their own tests. This would be nice, but results take four to seven days, delaying delivery and increasing costs.

Now trucks bound for Rwanda are queuing for days as Tanzanian authorities test for COVID-19. Rwanda also does not accept Tanzania’s COVID-19 certificates presented by Tanzanian truck drivers.

Carriers and the Private Sector Federation of Rwanda (PSF) read retaliation for the rejection of Rwanda’s COVID-19 certificates by the Tanzanian authorities, which other countries such as Uganda and Kenya are accepting, due to the measures that Rwanda has implemented.

At the height of cross-border COVID-19 infections attributed to truckers, Rwanda established the Kiyanzi logistics platform to test for Covid-19 for all truckers entering the country, and introduced the driver exchange system, which to Tanzania he didn’t like it.

Smell of retaliation

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry Michel Sebera said they are aware of the difficulties faced by Rwandan truckers in Tanzania, where delays in the clearance of Rwandan cargo have attracted high delays and other costs.

“We continue to negotiate with the Tanzanian and Kenyan authorities to release the containers and waive the charges.

“We have officially written to them, but we still have no news from Tanzania. We have even sent our representatives there, ”he said.

Regarding the allegations of sabotage and retaliation, Mr. Sebera said: “It is clear that they are using a number of delaying techniques and are retaliating against the measures that Rwanda took, including Kiyanzi, that were aimed at controlling the spread of Covid -19, but I have to know that the decisions that Rwanda made were supported at the CAO level “

“The tests on the Tanzanian side are taking between four and seven days, there is a slight movement now, but things are still bad,” said Joseph Akumuntu, director of the Rwanda Chamber of Commerce at PSF and head of the oil sector.

He said that while the problem of costly Rwandan truck delays to and from Kenya also persists on Malaba’s Kenya-Uganda border, in part because Uganda introduced test fees, at least Rwandan certificates are accepted.

“The tests of Rwandan truckers in Tanzania are not so much about safety, but about putting pressure on the government to eliminate the Kiyanzi stop,” he said.

Akumuntu said that for the Malaba delays, Rwanda asked to be given two rows, one for those with certificates and the other for those without, but this has yet to be granted, hence the persistent delays.

Abdul Ndaru, a logistics operator and president of the Rwanda Carriers Association, shares similar sentiments and says that the problems they face now go beyond Covid-19. He says that some measures by neighboring countries were instituted to settle accounts for some of Rwanda’s political and logistical decisions.

“For Tanzanian trucks coming from Dar es Salaam to Rwanda there is no problem, they load quickly and are fast, importers now even choose trucks from Tanzania or Kenya,” he said.

Boycott

The stalemate has turned into a boycott by several countries of Rwandan trucks and the transport of goods destined for Rwanda.

Kenyan truck owners are said to avoid products destined for Rwanda for fear of delays and high costs, leaving Rwandan truck owners and importers suffering losses.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Joseph Mudenge opted for the Kenyan route for his imports. It received at least four trucks of goods in a month, but now it only receives one truck.

“Costly delays forced me to leave Tanzania and I decided to get my goods from Kenya, but many truckers in Kenya are now refusing to handle cargo bound for Rwanda. We don’t know what to do, ”he said. The most affected are the cement traders. With expensive imports from Kenya or no imports at all, there has been a severe cement shortage in the country with a 50 kilogram bag now retailing for Rwf 13,000 ($ 13.6), the highest.