Zimbabwe Dry Port in Namibia breaks into profitability

Prosper Ndlovu in Windhoek, Namibia
FIVE years after its official opening by President Mnangagwa in Walvis Bay, the Zimbabwe Dry Port in Namibia has managed to achieve profitability and self-sustainability, thereby positioning the country for enhanced participation in driving intra-regional trade, while growing export earnings to develop the economy.

A dry port, sometimes referred to as an inland port, is an inland inter-modal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport, operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations.

Managed by the National Handling Serviced (NHS), the Zimbabwe Dry Port in Namibia was officially opened by President Mnangagwa in July 2019, and is regarded as a game changer in the provision of strategic and cheaper gateway to the Atlantic Ocean for manufacturers and international businesses in Southern Africa.

In an interview on Friday on the sidelines of the Windhoek Agricultural and Livestock Fair, where 15 Zimbabwean businesses led by ZimTrade are showcasing their goods and services, NHS general manager for the dry port, Mr Theodore Chinyanga, said the facility has achieved significant gains with positive impact since its establishment five years ago.

“The Zimbabwe Dry Port is now making a significant profit and is self-sustaining. We started making profit in May this year after meeting all our obligations,” he said.

“We are also engaging other players in the industry as we offer storage facilities, lease of bonded warehousing to countries like Zambia and DRC who are sending their things through the Zimbabwe Dry Port, especially fertiliser and sulphate, which is going to their mines.”

Mr Chinyanga urged more Zimbabwean businesses to capitalize on the efficiencies derived from using the country’s dry port facility, which is also playing a critical role in promoting trade and growing intra-regional trade within SADC.

As more Zimbabwean companies, diasporans and regional traders from countries such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, increasingly utilise the dry port and are benefiting from its competencies, Mr Chinyanga said the strategic agency was poised to further transform its operations.

“To our Zimbabwean exporters, we are working towards having a transit bond, which will allow transit goods to go to other countries.

“We are also working on refrigerated containers, which will benefit horticultural producers coming from Zimbabwe. We have had producers having concern over this issue and with the profits we are making we hope by the end of the year next year, we should be sustainable and all exporters should enjoy full benefits from the Zimbabwe Dry Port.”

Despite facing teething challenges at first, Mr Chinyanga said Zimbabwe has mastered fully the intricacies of the business and has now deployed a competent team on the ground to ensure all operations are smooth.

He said utilisation of the dry port facility was critical in bringing about logistical efficiencies and cutting costs while prioritising local exporters, which is not the case when relying on ports such as Durban in South Africa.

Going forward he said they were looking at further developing their infrastructure to cater for the quality handling of produce such as grains.
As the current chairman of the SADC bloc, Zimbabwe has come under spotlight in terms of influencing the regional development agenda and projects such as the dry port, and other collaborative infrastructure projects are expected to boost the momentum towards the achievement of a common regional integration objective.

Among the products and services offered by the dry port are containers and break-bulk handling, vehicle storage, bonded warehousing and storage, freight forwarding, packaging/unpacking containers, stuffing and de-stuffing of containers, container repair and other value-added services.