Inland ports are supposed to work like lungs for overstretched seaports, taking in cargo, easing congestion, and allowing the main port to breathe. For Tanzania, the Kwala Dry Port was designed to do just that. Launched with high expectations and presidential backing, Kwala sits strategically 100 kilometers from Dar es Salaam Port. It’s connected by both the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and highway, with the potential to become Tanzania’s logistics nerve center. And yet, two years into full operations, its performance still raises more questions than applause.
As of mid-2025, Kwala processes around 821 containers per day, roughly 30% of Dar Port’s container volume. That sounds substantial, until one considers that the facility was built to handle 3,500 to 5,000 containers daily. Phase II expansion is already underway, aiming to stretch capacity even further. But the more immediate concern isn’t space. It’s synchronization. If ports are about flow, Kwala’s flow is still uneven.
This article asks: Why has such a well-positioned inland facility not yet transformed Tanzania’s port logistics narrative? And what does its current trajectory reveal about the deeper constraints facing Tanzania’s infrastructure system?
The Logic of Kwala: Decongesting Dar by Shifting the Back End
The rationale behind Kwala was never in doubt. Dar es Salaam Port has long suffered from urban traffic choke points, poor cargo turnaround times, and congested yards that hinder both domestic and regional trade. By moving container clearance and storage inland, Kwala was meant to decouple port activity from city gridlock and streamline Tanzania’s position as a regional trade hub.
Located near Kibaha, Kwala offers three main advantages:
- Proximity to major roads (A7, Morogoro highway)
- Direct SGR rail access for cargo arriving from or heading to Dar Port
- Expansive land to allow phased expansion and clustering of customs, warehousing, and bonded services
From 2024 to mid-2025, Kwala moved over 300,000 containers, easing Dar’s container yard pressure and reducing truck movement within the city. In July 2025, officials announced that SGR-linked cargo movement to Kwala would double, potentially cutting hundreds of daily truck trips from Dar to upcountry destinations. A liaison office from Rwanda was also launched, a sign that regional governments are slowly adjusting their transit flows to benefit from inland clearance.
On paper, the logic is sound. Kwala is positioned to handle the logistics needs of the EAC and beyond. But implementation, as always, tells a different story.
The Reality on the Ground: Infrastructure Without Integration
Despite its potential, Kwala still operates far below capacity. The problem is not space, it’s the lack of full operational integration across the logistics chain.
First, customs systems remain partially disconnected. While TRA has stationed officers at Kwala, the whole clearance process still requires multiple document handovers and digital steps that aren’t always seamless. Cargo owners report delays stemming from inconsistent data between port discharge, rail manifests, and inland clearance entries.
Second, SGR scheduling isn’t fully aligned with port discharge timings, resulting in idle time at both ends. Cargo that could go straight from vessel to rail gets stranded waiting for the next available train. Meanwhile, Dar Port yards remain clogged, defeating Kwala’s core logic.
Third, private sector uptake remains cautious. Clearing agents, freight forwarders, and transit traders continue to prefer Dar Port because of its proximity to services, informal brokerage networks, and faster “under-the-table” fixes. Kwala’s more regulated environment, while efficient in theory, has yet to win the trust of everyday operators.
In sum, Kwala is a facility ahead of its ecosystem. The steel and concrete are ready. The software, policy alignment, and human behavior are still catching up.
First-Mile and Last-Mile Disruptions: The Overlooked Gaps
If Dar Port is the gateway, and Kwala the inland buffer, then the arteries connecting the two should be seamless. Yet, that’s where the cracks deepen. SGR promised to streamline the first-mile (port to dry port) and the last-mile(dry port to end user). In reality, mismatched scheduling, missing data, and capacity misalignment are turning these segments into bottlenecks.
Shipments offloaded in Dar often sit idle due to delayed train availability or lack of synced documentation. The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) has increased freight frequency, but not yet enough to match vessel discharge rates, particularly during peak weeks. Moreover, rail wagons remain in short supply, often pulled into other national priorities, such as fuel or cement.
At Kwala, the last-mile challenge is worse. While trucks do connect cargo to final destinations, there’s no integrated scheduling system between rail arrival and road haulage dispatch. This gap creates delays, warehouse crowding, and cost escalation for clients, especially for goods with time-sensitive shelf lives.
Additionally, Kwala lacks bonded warehousing and value-addition infrastructure, meaning traders cannot process, sort, or repackage goods without moving them elsewhere first. This undermines its potential as a regional logistics hub.
Why Users Still Prefer Dar Port Yards: Costs, Certainty, and Control
For many Tanzanian traders and clearing agents, the choice between Dar and Kwala is not about modernity, it’s about certainty. The Dar Port container yards may be congested, but they offer predictable timelines, dense service networks, and in many cases, informal workarounds that lower costs and speed up clearance.
Kwala, by contrast, represents a new ecosystem. One that’s digital, monitored, and less forgiving of shortcuts. That’s good for long-term transparency, but challenging in the short term for a market still embedded in an informal logistics culture.
There’s also the issue of cost layering. Clearing goods via Kwala adds:
- SGR freight charges (variable based on container type)
- Inland handling fees at the dry port
- Trucking fees from Kwala to the final destination
Even when these are bundled, traders often perceive Kwala as more expensive, especially for single-container or low-margin goods. For large corporate importers—like beverage companies or cement manufacturers, the value proposition is more straightforward. But for SMEs and cross-border informal traders, Kwala can feel like an added bureaucratic loop.
Missed Opportunity or Policy Failure?
Kwala’s challenges are not entirely surprising. Tanzania has a pattern: build first, integrate later. From the Bagamoyo Port to Stiegler’s Gorge hydropower project, large-scale infrastructure has often outpaced ecosystem readiness. The dry port may now be technically operational, but the institutional readiness, customs digitization, and behavioral incentives are still lagging.
At the heart of the issue is policy sequencing. TPA, TRA, and TRC operate in parallel rather than as a unified logistics command. Port cargo is planned by one entity, moved by another, and cleared by a third, with weak coordination or shared KPIs. The result? A facility like Kwala is structurally sound but functionally fragmented.
More worryingly, the blame game is starting to take root, port authorities fault traders for resisting the switch. Traders point to TPA and TRA for inefficiencies. Rail operators cite underutilization. This cycle risks framing Kwala as a white elephant before it matures.
What’s needed is not another ribbon-cutting or speech. It’s a hard reset in how Tanzania coordinates logistics reform across agencies, private actors, and the software behind the steel.
Fixing the Flow: What Needs to Change
Kwala Dry Port can still succeed. The problems it faces are not fatal design flaws; they are governance, coordination, and adoption challenges, all solvable with political will and technical clarity.
Here are five action points that emerge clearly:
- Digitally Synchronize Port–Rail–Dry Port Clearance
TRA, TPA, and TRC must operate a unified cargo tracking and clearance system with real-time data visibility. Fragmented systems mean duplicated paperwork, shipment misrouting, and poor accountability. - Fix First- and Last-Mile Logistics
Increase SGR freight frequency with guaranteed schedules tied to vessel offloading windows. At Kwala, develop an integrated platform to match train arrival with truck dispatch, reducing cargo idle time and downstream delays. - Support User Transition with Incentives
Provide tariff rebates, digital onboarding, and dedicated help desks for small traders to ease their adoption of Kwala. Large corporate users already benefit from scale economies; SMEs need active hand-holding. - Strengthen Multi-Agency Logistics Governance
Appoint a National Logistics Reform Coordinator to oversee integration between TRA, TPA, TRC, MoWT, and regional stakeholders. Tanzania cannot afford another siloed rollout. - Invest in Value-Addition Infrastructure at Kwala
Develop bonded warehouses, cold chains, sorting and packaging hubs at the dry port. Without these, Kwala remains a glorified container yard, not a trade gateway.
The strategic payoff is immense. Kwala, when integrated properly, can be Tanzania’s answer to Kenya’s Naivasha ICD, or even eclipse it. It can serve Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, and the eastern DRC more efficiently than any other corridor. But to get there, infrastructure must meet reform.
From Steel to Strategy
Infrastructure is easy to launch but hard to land. Tanzania has poured concrete, laid tracks, and opened terminals, but without integration, the gains remain partial. Kwala Dry Port is a mirror to this dilemma: it holds great promise but reflects missed steps.
The path forward is not to abandon such projects but to double down on making them work. That means not just cutting ribbons, but cutting red tape. It means seeing SGR, Dar Port, and Kwala as parts of one logistics nervous system, not as disconnected limbs.
For Tanzania’s economy to scale up and integrate regionally, logistics has to become smarter, faster, and more user-centric. And that journey begins not with the next launch, but with fixing what’s already running, starting with Kwala.
Read more articles by Dr. Wilson Pesabelele