Uganda has announced its decision to rehabilitate Port Bell as it works on developing water transport on Lake Victoria, according to its Ministry of Works and Transport Permanent Secretary, Bageya Waiswa.
Speaking in Mombasa on the sidelines of the 48th Northern Corridor executive committee meeting, Waiswa says Kampala is already seeking out investors.
“As we focus on road and rail transport, Uganda is at the final stage of reaching an agreement with a number private partners to rehabilitate our Lake Victoria harbours to ensure that we reignite the triangular trade between Kisumu, Jinja and Mwanza in Tanzania with oil trade anticipated to be a major source of income,” Waiswa adds.
Uganda is already building a four-million-tonne barge to evacuate oil from the Kisumu jetty. This investment will increase East African intra-trade after the Kenya Pipeline Company launched a $57-million pipeline few years ago.
The Kisumu port, having already been rehabilitated at a cost of $300 million, made its first oil shipment to Uganda in December 2019 before it was officially commissioned.
The revitalisation of the lake’s transport is expected to confer substantial socio-economic benefits for Kisumu County on the Kenyan side, Uganda and Tanzania as well as Rwanda, DR Congo and South Sudan.
Lack of supporting infrastructure has been cited as a major roadblock to the Kisumu port’s smooth operations.