Posted on April, 27, 2017 at 08:55 am
A visit to Busia County tells a story of ongoing transformation in cross-border trade.
The Kenya-Uganda trade, for a long time known for lengthy procedures, expensive processes, a lot of paperwork and middlemen, has changed considerably.
Customs and other border control agencies from two states now sit under one roof to facilitate trade and collect revenues with ease. That is the concept of one-stop border post (OSBP).
Kenya has since made the OSBP a reality in seven of its border crossing points in a bid to remove the barrier to cross-border trade.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) says custom collections have tripled and clearance time cut from three days to just under one hour since it began implementing the OSBP in June last year.
KRA western regional coordinator Kevin Safari says the simplified procedures have attracted traders into the cross-border business as well as reduced smuggling, increasing revenue collections.
“With a faster and a simpler process, traders have had no incentive to use illegal channels to bring in goods into the country as they are assured of a faster and a more transparent process.
“We have also reduced the time they would take to cross the border, meaning they can trade more volumes which is also a revenue boost for us,” said Safari said during a tour of the Busia border point.
National economy
At the Busia border point, which is major entry and exit point between Kenya and Uganda, past delays forced trucks ferrying goods between the two countries to camp for up to three days, creating a booming micro economy.
As a result, the town witnessed the mushrooming of unregistered clearing agents and sharp growth in accommodation facilities such as hotels.
The towns may no longer be experiencing the border inefficiency-linked growth but officials believe the benefit has been transferred to the national economy as a whole.
Now, one only needs to deal with the border agencies of the destination country where a visit to just two desks complete the whole clearing process in just under 10 minutes in most cases.
The KRA says the delay usually occasioned by system slowdowns will be addressed when the Uganda Revenue Authority also begins using a new system to allow for uniform operations and speed up clearance.
Kenya has 35 gazetted entry and exit points with four more being proposed in the western border with Uganda.
Seven of these including the Malaba, Isbania, Taveta,Lunga Lunga,Loitoktok and Namanga have a similar border clearing process as Kenya seeks to facilitate more trade within the East African Community.
Through Busia where some 700 trucks pass every month, Kenya is able to export petroleum products to Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi while now trade is fast expanding to South Sudan and Ethiopia.
Uganda is the biggest point of export in cargo both in quantity as well as dollar value, hence the plan to introduce additional border points.
Under the new system, paperwork, which previously involved 16 documents on both sides of the border points has also been collapsed to four to meet the international best practice.
Stops are made on the destination country where one is served with agents from both countries.
“We hope to eliminate them to even one process in the long run as we facilitate faster trading and collect more revenue,” said Safari.
Traders who spoke to the Business Daily, however, cited the narrow Busia-Kisumu road which cause traffic snarl ups at the border points as a major contributor to the delays being experienced before entering or exiting the busy border point.
Congestion
Apart from being damaged, a bus park adjacent to the border point has caused congestion near the border worsening traffic for trucks entering and leaving Kenya through the point.
“Once this road is expanded then we will enjoy the full benefits of having a one stop border point.
“We may even need to have a separate lane or get a by-pass to save us the hours we spend waiting in traffic here,” Mohamed Dahir, an oil transporter said.
The EAC last year launched the first one-stop border post in Holili and Taveta towns on the Kenya-Tanzania border.
The facility was built at the cost of about Sh1.2 billion million with funding from TradeMark East Africa.
The region plans to have at least 15 one-stop border posts to reduce the time taken to clear goods and services and speed up the region’s integration.
Source: Business Daily