In a bid to boost the country’s economy and unblock the country, Burundi’s president launched activities to renovate the port of Bujumbura whose bill will be landed with 31Million to last for two years.
Burundi’s president Evariste Ndayishimiye has officially kicked start the construction activities of Bujumbura port aiming at facilitating exchanges with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia through Lake Tanganyika.
In his allocation on Thursday, September 9th, 2021, the president said that after the completion of the renovation, Burundi will no longer be landlocked since it will be opened to southern countries as well as to the Indian Ocean.
“This port gives the strength to awaken as to multiply our effort in production. The canal through which to be expended our harvest is open, let us not be only importers but also exporters because the country cannot develop”, says the president of Burundi.
“Owing a market is an issue but if not vigilant there might be only buyers”, he added stressing that development will be fostered while there are sellers.
The modernization of the port according to the plan is a four-scale construction including the canal, container terminal, Shipyard, and dredging.
According to Jacques Bigirimana the Director of the port of Bujumbura, in two years the port will be the first in the region. It will have the capacity to receive big and heavy shipments.
“The Bujumbura port throughput will be high. It will have the capacity to host boats for repairmen which have been done in Mpulungu (Zambia) and Kigoma (Tanzania)”, said Bigirimana.
The Nippon-Burundian cooperation comes after the government of Burundi has launched two parallel projects in an effort to boost the economy of the country including the railway project (July 2020) and Burundi Airlines (February 2021) as well.
The country monitored a railway committee to study the feasibility of the project. It is expected to connect Burundi from Tanzania through the central corridor Uvinza-Musongati-Gitega-Bujumbura-Uvira and Kindu.
In addition, Burundi will directly be granted access to the coastline hence reducing the cost of doing business in the region as businessmen had more than a week to bring goods from Dar-Es-Salam.
In the same perspective to boost the national economy, Burundi has initiated the Burundi Airlines project which looks forward to monitoring the country’s owned fleet after more than a decade without a national flight which will redefine the tourism industry.
The renovation of the port enters in the race to reshape the country’s economy as it will enhance the rapidity of goods, traffic, and regional integration.
