Vessels on the berths to load and offload cargos within the port of Mombasa, Kenya on February 27, 2020. Photo: NMG

In its latest report on port efficiency worldwide, the World Bank revealed that the port of Mombasa has surpassed Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port, posing a challenge to its regional dominance.

The 2023 Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) ranks Mombasa at position 328, while Dar es Salaam dropped from 312 to 367 out of 348 ports surveyed.

This marks a significant shift from the 2021 report, where Mombasa was at 296 and Dar es Salaam at 316.

Despite this progress, Kenya still lags behind East African peers, with Berbera Port in Somaliland leading at position 106 globally.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the latest report ranks Berbera port in Somaliland as the top-performing port.

Djibouti, ranked 379th globally, criticized the World Bank for bias, calling the ranking unjustified and unacceptable.

Factors contributing to Mombasa’s decline include increased competition from Dar es Salaam, prompting many transporters to favor the Central Corridor due to better road conditions and lower border charges.

The Central Corridor spans over 1,300km from the Port of Dar es Salaam through Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and eastern DRC, while the Northern Corridor covers approximately 1,700km from Mombasa through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern DRC.

The CPPI report, released annually, assesses the performance of container ports worldwide based on various criteria such as efficiency, productivity, and infrastructure.

The fourth iteration of the CPPI, developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, is based on the largest-ever dataset, comprising over 182,000 vessel calls, around 238.2 million moves, and approximately 381 million twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs) for the full 2023 calendar year. 

It ranks 405 global container ports by efficiency, focusing on container vessels’ port stay duration.

The latest edition shows East and Southeast Asian ports leading the pack in 2023, with 13 out of the top 20 spots.