The Kenyan government has signed a framework agreement for the development of the country’s ports, rail and pipeline services, media report said. The Kenya Transport and Logistics Network (KTLN) will anchor and integrate Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) as part of the framework.
The new framework is a part of the government’s parastatal Reforms that was adopted in 2013.
Kenya’s Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) will act as a holding company to the three agencies and will be responsible for managing the government’s investments in rail, ports and pipeline services. The new framework is expected to boost efficiency and lower the cost of doing business in the country.
Ukur Yatani Cabinet Secretary, Treasury, told the media, “We expect that through this new integrated and seamless approach of operational integration, the country will reap the benefits of created synergies through increased efficiency, lower cost of doing business and hence competitiveness of our products and services, and generally higher returns on the infrastructural investment. The Agreement sets out the scope of the collaboration, with the broad areas being policy, financial, operational, transactional and decisional collaboration. Each of these broad areas are further broken down into detailed and more specific targets to give more clarity and focus.”
The new development is expected to boost Kenya’s ambition to become as a regional logistics hub in Africa. The country’s economy contracted for the first time in almost 12 years in the second quarter from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.