In a bid to grow Rwanda’s maritime transport, trade and tourism sectors, four ports are to be developed on Lake Kivu.

The US$24 million project will be co-financed by the Netherlands (45%), TradeMark East Africa (50%) and the Rwandan government (5%), according to reports by Further Africa.

‘Port development is a prerequisite of the overall maritime transport initiatives, which will be followed by the development and operation of ferry services on Lake Kivu,’ says Rose Rutera, transport division manager at the Rwanda Transport Development Agency. She adds that procurement of the first two ports (Rubavu and Rusizi) is at the final stage, while procurement of the remaining two (Nkora and Karongi) will begin in early 2020.

It is hoped the ports will boost tourism, increase connectivity between districts and improve cross-border trade between Rwanda and the DRC.

The smaller Karongi port is expected to have a 400 000 passengers-per-year capacity (by 2036) whereas the others will be considerably larger, with annual capacity reaching 2.8 million in the same timeframe.

All ports are due to be operational by 2022.

17 December 2019
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