Seaport Governance Framework in Tanzania: Challenges and Strategies

Tanzania is the one of 54 countries which forms an African continent, Tanzania is located in the Eastern part of Africa. Tanzania provides an accessibility of maritime transport and seaport services to its surrounding landlocked nations of Zambia, Burundi, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe. Tanzania is a maritime state which containing the coastline of 1424 km. Coastline involves major and small seaports, major seaports in Tanzania includes Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Mtwara seaports while small seaports in Tanzania are Kilwa, Lindi, and Mafia seaports. Tanzania seaports have hybrid seaport management model which combined both public service and landlord governance model. This hybrid of a seaport management model faces several challenges. The absence of standalone regulator of seaports, high seaport tariffs, poor seaport service quality, low maritime education and skills of seaport staff, increased bribery level, low seaport efficiency, seaport congestion and too long average container dwell time are identified as challenges facing the existing hybrid seaport management model in Tanzania. Constructive suggestions for the modification of the existing management framework such as executing a total landlord port management model, introduction of maritime authority, encouraging competition among private investors, modernizing the seaport operating system and systematizing staff training sessions are given to wind up, these strategies will enhance efficiency and service quality of seaport in Tanzania.