The Ministry of Transport, Ethiopia is increasing the number of custom warehouses for use in multi-modal transport across the country.
The National Bank of Ethiopia authorized banks to open letters of credit for their clients to ship to the new warehouses operated by the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority, according to a letter circulated by the bank.
The letter sent out from the central bank indicated that 10 new warehouses in various parts of the country have set up to facilitate the multi-modal transport system.
The new warehouses are located in different parts including in Afar, Oromia and Tigray Regional States.It is to be remembered that when the multi-modal directive took effect on the 1st of January all shipment had to be transported to either of the two dry ports, Semera and Modjo or to the ERCA warehouse found at Kality.
It is expected that the new directive will reduce the foreign currency spent on warehousing fees at Port Djibouti by streamlining shipment processing according to officials.
The directive allows for a monopoly of the multi-modal system by the ELSE until private operators are licensed under a new bill that will require 10 million birr initial capital for investors in the sector is passed according to sources.
Importers will arrange agreements with the ELSE for the transport of their shipment to Port Djibouti handling all clearance requirements and delivering the shipment to dry port facilities at Modjo or Semera.
Source: Capital
