Rupiah Banda visits maritime port facility site in Namibia

Zambian President, Rupiah Banda, on Friday set foot on a piece of land that Namibia has provided to Zambia to construct a maritime port facility in the port of Walvis Bay.

Africa Union Cargo (Pty) Limited, a division of South Africa Union Financial Services (Pty) Limited, is currently developing the 30 000-square metre site. Head of the Africa Union Cargo (Pty) Limited Namibia, Timothy Toussaint, informed President Banda that his company is working closely with NamPort in ensuring that a world-class infrastructure is built around the seaport area, to assist NamPort to continue offering efficient port services and to facilitate increase in trade and economic development in the region.

He said the site would be developed in two phases. A railway line runs through the middle of the area, where a 7 000-square-metre warehouse will be set up on the bigger part of the pristine land.

The site makes space for container handling and copper transfer handling.

The area will also be fitted with CCTV cameras as a safety measure.

The first part of the container handling will be operational after three months and full completion is expected in the second half of 2011. The investment is worth N$55 million after completion.

A representative of the Africa Union Financial Services (Pty) Limited, Albert Mumba, informed President Banda that the financing comes from his company’s internal resources, as the company could no longer qualify for a development loan on a compromised business plan. This is due to Namibia and the DRC suddenly pulling out of the signed agreement, and still expecting Zambia to singularly fund the cost of developing the corridor.

He appealed to President Banda, seeing that the Zambian government is satisfied with the level of the dry-port facility development so far, to expedite finalisation of the Mombassa Dry Port so that his company gets back on track in terms of the integrated off-take contracts that can boost their original business plan.

He said with Zambian mines in the first quarterly financial outlook showing an overall increase in copper production – and two more mines scheduled to restart – and without developing extra capacity at ports, exports are bound to suffer, and increases in production becomes meaningless if the end users cannot receive their cargo on time.

Mumba informed President Banda that the Zambian High Commission in Windhoek played a pivotal role in acquiring the prime land at the Namibian port.

Bisey Uirab, CEO of NamPort, told the visiting president, First Lady Thandiwe Banda and a ministerial delegation that the port was viewed as a God-given asset to the Namibian people and the entire SADC region, especially landlocked Zambia, Botswana, the DRC and Zimbabwe.

He said the dry port allocated to Zambia is seen as a significant development for NamPort. The recently signed Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Corridor initiative will see an increase in the flow of cargo through the port.

Last year, Uirab said, the port handled 350 ships and promised that with the 634-strong workforce on his side both in Lüderitz and Walvis Bay, transshipment and transit will be maintained within the 3-4 days limit period. With other ports, he said, like Durban, Maputo, Dar es Salaam and Port Elizabeth, delivery to the land-locked countries takes 10 or more days, while all of them are the same distance from Lusaka as Walvis Bay.

NamPort, he said, is handling 5.4 million tonnes per year and it also loads and off-loads 350 000 containers per year.

The Trans-Kalahari Corridor is an additional route to Namibia, giving her a competitive advantage over her neighbours.

President Banda also visited the Walvis Bay Salt Company and the Etosha Fish Factory. He and his delegation left the country on Friday.

[New Era Publications]