Kenya banking on Africa trade deal to boost Lamu port

Kenya hopes to ride on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement to secure business for the Lamu Port. The country targets to use the gazetted Special Economic Zone (SEZ) near the new port as a value addition centre for agricultural commodities among them tea and coffee, key exports for Kenya.

The government is also targeting export of avocados and livestock with factories for value addition in canned fruits, vegetable and juices expected to be set up at the SEZ

According to the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA), the port and SEZ also provide an opportunity for investors to enjoy manipulation of cargo for re-exportation without paying various duties and taxes.

Lamu is also being fronted as a transshipment hub which involves movement of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination.

Africa has more than one hundred major port facilities, a few of which handle six per cent of the worldwide water-borne cargo traffic and about three per cent of the world’s container traffic.

According to KEPROBA, Lamu will be instrumental in integrating Africa and anchoring Africa to the world. “This is aligned to the African Continental Free Trade Area vision of a connected Africa,”KEPROBA chief executive Wilfred Marube.Within the East African region, only Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan are yet to ratify the agreement.