By Adonis Byemelwa
Dar es Salaam — African maritime ministers considered a proposed regional cabotage framework at a meeting in Dar es Salaam on October 15, as cargo handled by the Port of Dar es Salaam was reported to have reached 33.71 million tonnes in the 2025/26 financial year.
The proposal was discussed at the 10th Assembly of the Maritime Organisation for Eastern, Southern and Northern Africa (MOESNA), where Tanzania assumed the organisation’s chairmanship.
The meeting’s agenda also covered regional shipping links, maritime training, safety and environmental protection. The available account does not indicate that the protocol was signed or ratified at the assembly.
Cabotage generally refers to the transport of cargo or passengers between ports within a country. The Revised African Maritime Transport Charter also promotes “trans-African cabotage” between ports of member states, encouraging national and regional shipping lines and private-sector participation.
The proposed MOESNA framework is intended to give regional operators a clearer basis for carrying more of that traffic, although its precise obligations and eligibility rules would depend on the final text.
Supporters say a regional arrangement could encourage more regular services, improve African operators’ bargaining position on freight, expand seafarer training and ship ownership, and retain a greater share of freight income in African economies. Those are objectives, not guaranteed outcomes: the proposal’s effect would depend on the rules adopted, the routes covered and whether operators could attract enough cargo to run services sustainably.
Transport Minister Prof. Makame Mbarawa urged MOESNA to produce “real economic results” rather than remain “a forum of meetings and resolutions”. The meeting also discussed cooperation among regional shipping companies, investment in vessels and a proposed regional maritime university.
The statements point to an ambition to turn maritime policy coordination into practical services, but the article’s available meeting account does not establish that a carrier, financing package or university project was approved.
A MOESNA-commissioned terms-of-reference document identifies issues that would need examination before a regional shipping service could be launched: market demand, viable routes, financing, national laws, safety and environmental safeguards, enforcement and dispute resolution.
Governments would also need to determine how any regional rules would interact with domestic legislation. Operators, meanwhile, would need vessels, working capital, cargo commitments and dependable connections between ports and inland markets.
Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba said a regional system would need sufficient cargo and passengers, capable vessels and ports to be sustainable. That warning captures the central commercial test.
A protocol can provide a policy framework, but it cannot by itself guarantee profitable routes or remove delays and costs across road, rail, border and port networks. Return cargo, reliable schedules and coordination with inland transport would be crucial to any service’s viability.
Dar es Salaam offers a substantial potential base. Tanzania Ports Authority describes the port as the country’s principal maritime gateway and a route for trade serving neighbouring landlocked states, including Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Figures reported after the meeting put throughput at 33.71 million tonnes in 2025/26, compared with 27.7 million tonnes the previous year, with transit cargo at 14.61 million tonnes. The figures were reported in a news account citing Port Director Abed Gallus; they should be read as port-wide and transit volumes, not as proof of demand for a particular regional cabotage service.
The port’s growth illustrates both opportunity and pressure. More cargo could support regional shipping links, but traffic moving to landlocked markets also depends on railways, roads, dry ports, border procedures and the capacity to move goods beyond the quay. Any shipping plan would need to address those links rather than treat maritime transport as a stand-alone solution.
The proposal also sits within a wider African policy framework. The African Union says the Revised African Maritime Transport Charter entered into force in August 2025 and provides a continental basis for cooperation on maritime policy, training, port efficiency and transport corridors serving coastal and landlocked states.
The relationship between the charter and the MOESNA proposal, whether the protocol would implement, complement or coordinate with the charter, should be clarified in the final legal text.
Global shipping disruptions give the debate added context, but they do not establish that a regional protocol would shield African trade from shocks. UN Trade and Development estimates that more than 80 per cent of world trade by volume is carried by sea, and its maritime reporting has documented the effects of Red Sea disruptions on shipping schedules and supply chains.
Regional services could offer additional options on some routes; their contribution would depend on route design, capacity, costs and dependable connections with international networks.
The next test for MOESNA and participating governments is therefore practical: publish the proposal’s current text and status, explain how it would work alongside national law and the African Union charter, and set out the evidence on demand, financing and routes. Until those details are available and member states decide on the instrument, the regional cabotage plan remains a policy proposal, not an operating shipping system.