Kenya has issued a five-year licence to Uganda for a container freight station built at the port of Mombasa to ease delays caused by congestion.
The licence was issued by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) after high level diplomatic intervention, as Kenya had initially refused to grant it.
Ugandan business community say they have been frustrated by Kenya’s delay in granting the license; the delay was seen as a non-tariff barrier and a hurdle to trade between the two countries. KRA spokesman Kennedy Onyonyi said that at a meeting on April 15, Kenya’s tax body agreed to give UCHL the five-year licence.
Mr Onyonyi said KRA had refused to grant the licence earlier because some conditions had not been met.