Regional Electronic Cargo & Driver Tracking System to Revive Trade in EAC 

Covid-19's impact on transportation in East Africa has been the greatest impediment to trade in the entire region. Due to the multiple medical tests that drivers are forced to undertake, the wait period has been a critical hinderance on goods being delivered on time. This has drastically changed much of the supply of goods and services from the two key ports of the region, namely the Mombasa Port in Kenya and the Dar es Salaam Port in Tanzania.   With the global pandemic continuing its tirade, no corner in the world is spared.  Trade in Eastern Africa has severely been affected by internal and regional barriers inhibiting competitiveness of regional goods and services.   Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, for example, the port of Mombasa, the busiest in East Africa, handled approximately 27 million tonnes of cargo and processing more than one million containers. Following the pandemic, however, the import cargo experienced a drop of around 4.5 per cent with exports and transshipment cargo declining by 1.3 and 18.3 per cent.   With these challenges, there has been pressure in the cost of production and transportation rendering products and businesses in East Africa to be less competitive in the global market, thus missing out in the world value chains.   Also Read: EABC calls for mutual