Malawi is yet to fully utilise the Nacala port and corridor for its imports and exports, Nacala Logistics officials say.
At a conference of the port’s and corridor’s users in Blantyre on Tuesday, the Nacala Logistics Commercial and Marketing Manager Kennedy Kwerani said the port and corridor have a huge potential to improve trade between Malawi and neighbouring countries.
Kwerani said Malawi could utilise the railway line and road transport within the corridor to import more of the important cargo for use in the country.
Kwerani then said there is hope as the cargo that is transported through the corridor would be increasing.
“There is a huge capacity that is not being utilised by us (Malawi) as a country because we have a huge capacity for transporting fuel for example, last year alone we were able to transport close to 129 million liters of fuel of which only 33 million was for Malawi.
“There was a lot of capacity to transport the commodity into Malawi but it was diverted onto the international market,” Kwerani said.
He then expressed hope saying the quantities have been increasing over the years.
“We must understand that the quantities cannot increase in a day or so, it is a process and we have seen a considerable increase over the years,” He said.
Senior adviser at CFM, which operates the Nacala port in Mozambique Neimo Induna said improvements made at the port have enhanced efficiency.
Induna told the stakeholders that Nacala corridor has been rehabilitated and its capacity extended to process around 50 containers per hour among others.
“Nacala port is now in a situation where partners are not waiting for long to have their cargo processed and transported.
“This conference served as a platform for us to update stakeholders on the new realities of the port and management of the railway line,” Induna said.
Nacala is said to be the largest natural deep-water port on the east African coast.
It is a gateway for the host country, Mozambique and its neighbours Malawi and Zambia to the world.
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