DFID Deputy Head Tom Gardner (left) exchanging grant agreement documents with TMEAs Director General David Stanton (right).
The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) have today signed a £23million (Ksh. 3.5 billion) grant agreement that is targeted towards the modernization of the Mombasa Port. The projects to be funded include infrastructure investments aimed at addressing energy efficiency, speed up import and export trade handling, and minimise environmental impacts at the port of Mombasa. This additional support now brings total DFID funding towards the Mombasa port to £63 million (Ksh. 10 billion).
The Mombasa Port is the gateway to East and Central Africa, serving close to 250 million people along the Northern Corridor. The funding will add to the cost reductions targets under the current Mombasa port improvement programme and will contribute to reducing carbon emissions, increasing energy technologies within the port thereby improving workforce productivity. The additional support is in response to a recent study that was conducted by the Kenya Ports Authority which recommended the need for mainstreaming of climate change and renewable energy into port operations.
Through TMEA, UK and its seven other development partners are currently spending about US$700m (Kshs 51 billion) on reducing barriers to trade and accelerating regional economic integration in the East African Community (EAC). Improvements at the port of Mombasa are critical to increasing regional trade in the EAC with benefits that include reductions in the cost of goods of up 40%.
TMEA in partnership with the Kenyan Government last week hosted a donors conference to raise funds for the upgrading of the Mombasa Port.