Posted on December, 3, 2018 at 11:18 am
PRESIDENT John Magufuli and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, yesterday launched the Namanga One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) calling for the authorities to protect the interests of small traders.
The two leaders said the authorities at the OSBP needed to ensure they observed the laws in order to build unity between the two nations.
“Authorities at the border who will be barriers to traders and abuse small traders mean they will be barring business between the two nations,” President Magufuli said yesterday at the launch of the border post.
He said one of the trade barriers on the continent was bureaucracy which, he said, was bringing unnecessary delays in business leading to high cost of doing business in the region.
According to the president, the construction of the OSBP has brought about positive changes by increasing revenue to Sh4.5bn from Sh3bn before each month.
“We expect to collect Sh58bn in this fiscal year from this border post,” the president said.
With the new border post, it is expected that business and tourism activities will expand ten-fold as well as increased revenues between the two countries.
He also acknowledged the investment capacity done by Kenya as among the ten leading investors in Tanzania.
The president insisted that the two countries were not enemies as portrayed when it comes to business investments.
“Tanzanians also need to invest in Kenya and export their cattle to our neighbours,” he said.
For his part, President Kenyatta said a country’s business is damaged by those entrusted with the task of managing it.
“The launch of this one-stop centre should be a centre for respecting both types of traders and facilitate their ability to do business,” he said.
“It is our responsibility to ensure we have protected small traders because they are the basis of national development,” President Kenyatta said.
He said those boundaries set by the whites should not separate EAC members, “because we are brothers and we should keep the unity.”
The Kenyan president challenged the EAC member countries to build a huge market that will allow them to bring huge investors and make the economy grow rapidly.
He alerted that if the African countries will not unite the countries will remain poor.
The Namanga One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) is one of a dozen others, which have either been launched or are being commissioned to ease trade flows within the six-nation East African Community (EAC) bloc.
The consolidation of border control functions in shared spaces between the two countries is meant to ease the turn-around time for clearance of goods by traders.
The Namanga post, whose construction works started in 2014, has been open since October last year.
The Namanga OSBP is part of the EAC regional initiative, implemented jointly with Kenya and Tanzania, supported by development partners through the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the African Development Bank.
Source: IPP Media