Late arrival of ship manifests delaying clearance of goods

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to late transmission of cargo manifests from loading ports abroad to the Port of Mombasa as most of the staff are working from home.

Kenya Shipping Agents Association (KSSA) CEO Juma Tellah said that as a result this has delayed the clearance of some goods at the facility.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Tella said the issue is currently being addressed by government agencies charged with the clearance of cargo at the port.

“Yes, it is true, the delay we are experiencing currently with some of our members is the receipt of manifests from the loading ports. Because most of the people are now working from home, the manifests to Mombasa are coming late, some by two days after the vessels dock in Mombasa,” he said.

“Most of our members affected are the agents are also handling cargo ships from the Far East,” said Mr Tellah. He said normally, agents are supposed to get the manifest 48 hours before the arrival of the ships but the delayed transmission is now inconveniencing cargo clearance.

“Because of those new styles of working the manifests are coming late so their submission to both Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) also delay. But we have also made that known to the KRA and they have said that they will take that into consideration. This is to say that just in case there is any expected delay, they will be informed upfront,” said Mr Tellah.

Mr Tellah said that currently, most of the documents are being sent online to avoid physical contacts.

“We discussed this with both the KPA and the KRA and in order to avoid these contacts, all the documents are now processed online.

“In fact, all the KRA systems have a virtual provision for submitting cargo manifest,” he said.

He said initial cargo manifests were normal transmitted through the KRA systems and then the agents would later lodge a manually copy to the KRA but Mr Tellah said that has now changed and the new guideline from KRA is for the agents to submit soft copies of the manifests through emails even after lodging the online copy.

He however, said normal vessel schedules reporting at the port have not been affected, adding that the move to have international commerce continue amid the corona virus challenges was communicated to the world by the two United Nation (UN) agencies in charge of international trade.

“The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have all called for continuity of world trade amid the Covid-19 pandemic and that is why ships keep on calling in different ports around the world including Mombasa. “As an association we are yet to receive any case of vessels cancelling or discontinuing with their voyage to this region,” said Mr Tellah.

The same sentiments were echoed by car importers at the port who said that the late transmission of manifest has affected clearance of their vehicles also.

Car Importers Association of Kenya (CIAK) national chairman Peter Otieno said the less human intervention because of the pandemic is what is leading to the delayed transmission of cargo manifests.

“Sometimes you find that the vessel has arrived at the port but the transmission of the manifest is late. You know people are working from home but the international trade has not stopped. So these delays we can say are a result of less human intervention,” said Mr Otieno.

He said further that no cargo can be shipped into the country without first being inspected from its port of origin and because of the less human interaction then the delays are bound to be witnessed for sometimes.

“All the ports in the world are working and it is only that people are working from home with less human interventions. For example, people tasked to do the inspection of cargo, must be available to inspect. But there has to be care with that. No cargo can be shipped without being inspected and the less human workforce in those ports is the cause for the delay,” said Mr Otieno.

He further said that although vehicles still arrive at the port of Mombasa, there are currently no buyers of their products and the sales have dwindled to about 10 per cent.

“Our car business is down by 90 per cent. It is not that the vessels are not being imported but rather the buyers who are mainly from upcountry no longer come to the coast to buy since the lockdown started,” said Mr Otieno.

Every year, the Port of Mombasa receives about 130,000 units of secondhand vehicles.