VP Kachali visits the Malawi Cargo Centre in Tanzania
Vice President Khumbo Kachali on Friday visited the Malawi Cargo Centre (MCC) at port of Dar es Salaam Friday to appreciate how it carries out its functions.
Malawi Cargo Centre was opened 20 years ago following the closure of Beira and Nacala routes due to civil war in Mozambique in the 1980s. It was then handling about 30 percent of Malawi’s traffic.
From late 90s until now the MCC is handling goods for Malawi and other countries in the region like Tanzania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The MCC has at the moment the capacity to handle dry cargo of about 12,000 metric tonnes in its warehouse and 20 Million litres of fuel in Dar es Salaam and 4 million litres in Mbeya.
According to the General Manager of Malawi Cargo Centre, Pascal Chikaonda, the company is at the moment facing some challenges mainly in revenue collection due to among other factors, the shrinking of Malawi economy in recent years that led to the unavailability of fuel.
He said the fuel shortage made the MCC lose out on handling wet cargo for the past one year. Chikaonda also said old equipment and limited space to handle large tonnage of cargo is another problem they are grappling with.
He said the MCC has therefore embarked on expansion project on its warehouses in order to increase the handling of tonnage from the current 12,000 to 20,000 Metric tonnes when completed in 2013.
Kachali arrived at Julius Nyerere International Airport around midnight Thursday December 6, to attend the One day SADC Extra Ordinary Summit on Saturday the 8th December, and Tanzania’s National Independence Cerebrations on Sunday December 9, 2012.
The VP was welcomed by Professor Anna Tibayijuka, Minister of Lands of Tanzania, and Malawi’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, Flossie Gomile Chidyaonga and members of staff.