Uganda’s second sea route faces a 200-to-one cargo gap

Uganda’s search for another route to the sea starts with a striking imbalance: Tanzanian ports handled about 47,600 tonnes of Ugandan cargo in 2025, while Kenya’s Mombasa handled 10.91 million tonnes—more than 200 times as much. For businesses moving goods to and from Uganda, Tanzania offers the prospect of a second shipping corridor, not an immediate replacement for Kenya, according to Daily Monitor Uganda.

Dar es Salaam is growing rapidly, though Uganda accounts for little of that momentum. Tanzanian government figures cited by the newspaper show transit cargo—goods passing through for other countries—rose 17% to 14.61 million tonnes in 2025/26. Total cargo increased 21.5% to 33.71 million tonnes. The Democratic Republic of Congo supplied more than half the transit volume, with cargo rising 30% to 7.77 million tonnes. Rwanda’s shipments grew 24% to 2.18 million tonnes.

A railway with a different destination

The obstacle for Uganda is partly geography. Kampala is about 1,715 kilometres from Dar es Salaam by road, compared with roughly 1,150 kilometres from Mombasa. A Kampala logistics company’s 2018 estimate put container trucking costs at about $4,800 from Dar, against $2,700 from Mombasa. Those historical figures illustrate the challenge rather than establish today’s prices. Customs rules already permit either port as a first entry point under the East African Community’s Single Customs Territory.

Uganda and Tanzania signed a framework agreement on March 13, 2026, for a standard-gauge railway, a line built to a common track width, from Isaka through Lusahunga and Murongo/Kikagati to Mpondwe. It would connect with Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam–Mwanza railway and enter Uganda at Kikagati, passing through Mbarara, Bihanga and Kasese. Crucially, it would bypass Kampala and serve western Uganda and the Congo border. Capital-bound cargo would still require road or lake transport, while Uganda could also carry freight onward to Congo.

The railway remains a longer-term prospect. Tanzania’s Isaka–Mwanza section was 68% complete in February 2026, and financing for Makutupora–Isaka was signed only in April. Tanzania targets completion of the full Dar–Mwanza route in 2028. No cost or financing has been published for the Ugandan section, while Uganda’s priority remains its railway connection to Kenya. A nearer-term link already crosses Lake Victoria: Grindrod’s MV Mpungu has carried up to 1,000 tonnes of containerised cargo between Mwanza and Port Bell since January 2025. The crossing takes about 18 hours, versus three to four days by road.

Faster ports, competing corridors

At Dar es Salaam, DP World has operated Terminal 1’s berths zero to seven since April 2024 under a 30-year concession, an agreement to run the facilities. About $123 million had been deployed by April 2026. The terminal handled 44,001 TEUs in May and 48,793 in August, compared with 13,779 in May 2024. A TEU measures capacity using a standard 20-foot shipping container. DP World says unloading times for comparable operations have dropped by more than 90%.

According to DP World, comparable cargo operations now take under 28 hours to unload, down from more than 300 hours.

Fuel provides another opening. About 95% of Uganda’s petroleum products, roughly 2.96 billion litres annually, still arrive through Mombasa and Kenya Pipeline Company. But Uganda began trucking fuel from Dar following a 2024 dispute with Kenya over Uganda National Oil Company’s import arrangements. In February 2026, the two countries’ presidents agreed to accelerate a refined-products pipeline to Tanga.

Kenya is expanding too. Mombasa handled a record 45.45 million tonnes in 2025, and construction of the Naivasha–Kisumu–Malaba railway extension began in July 2026. Uganda is assembling financing for its €2.7 billion Malaba–Kampala line. The next tests for Tanzania’s alternative are completion of the railway to Mwanza and clarity on Uganda’s connecting line. Until then, lake services and port performance will help determine how useful a second corridor becomes.