The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) intends to hire an independent operator to take over the management of the second container terminal that is under construction at the Port of Mombasa.

To increase efficiency, the KPA has already floated an international tender for the investor, who will operate two berths at the terminal under a concession agreement.

“The KPA, as the executing agency of the project, intends to retain a private operator to operate Phase 1,” the authority says, adding that the winning bidder of Phase 1 will be given the right of refusal to operate phases 2 and/or 3, depending on the financing option. The second and third phases will be ready by 2017 and 2020 respectively.

The first phase involves the construction of two berths for post-Panama vessels of 60 000 deadweight tons (DWT) and Panama container ships of 20 000 DWT, as well as a smaller berth. The new berth allows three Panamax vessels up to 250 m in length to offload containers at any time.

The winning bidder will oversee the management of the terminal, which is scheduled for completion in March this year.

The terminal, which is being implemented at a cost of $350-million, is expected to ease congestion at the Mombasa port and cement Kenya’s position as a regional gateway.

The terminal is part of the $2-billion the East African nation is investing over the next eight years to expand the port and improve its efficiency and competitiveness.

Kenyan authorities decided to invest in the expansion of the port after shelving initial plans to privatise the Mombasa port owing to stiff opposition by trade unions.

The search for an independent operator comes soon after the port attained a throughput of one-million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) last year.

“This massive growth significantly strengthens our status in the league of the best-performing ports in the world,” says KPA MD Gichiri Ndua.

In 2013, the port handled 894 000 TEUs and was ranked among the top 120 ports in the world out of over 5 000 ports.

Firms interested to take over the management of the terminal are required to have at least five years’ experience in container terminal operations.
They must also have at least three international container terminals as a concessionaire with an average annual throughput of not less than 400 000 TEUs per terminal or a combined 1.2-million TEUs, including transit, transshipment, laden and empty containers.

In concenssioning the terminal, the Mombasa port joins many other ports on the continent that are being operated by independent firms.