Movement of goods across East Africa will become much faster later this year as the region moves to complete one-stop border posts (OSBP) within the Community.

The OSBPs which are necessary for East Africa to become a fully-fledged Customs Union, will reduce the time transporters spend trying to clear goods at the different border points.

Tanzania will launch the first OSBP at the Kabanga-Kobero border with Burundi next month and the Mutukula border post on the border with Uganda a month later.

READ: Tanzania, Burundi closer to one-stop border post

Officials at TradeMark East Africa, the organisation investing on average $10 million per OSBP, said that the Uganda side of the Mutukula as well as the Busia crossing into Kenya are about 60 per cent complete.

READ: Kenya on track to complete five one-stop border posts

The Mirama Hills OSBP on the Rwanda-Uganda border will likely be the last to be completed this year, with its launch expected in December, while the South Sudan OSBP to be constructed on the Elegu border with Uganda will be complete a year later.

Moses Sabiiti senior programme manager at TradeMark East Africa, said that completion of OSBPs means that all institutions involved in the clearing of goods will have access to the same information and communications technology system, which will in turn ease the clearing of goods.

The ICT system, also known as the integrated border management system (IBMS) will be accessible to revenue authorities, immigration authorities, ministries of agriculture, national drug authorities, police and the national bureau of standards, institutions that are all involved in the clearing of goods at border points.  

Mr Sabiiti said that using the IBMS will reduce the time trucks spend crossing borders by at least three times. Currently, trucks spend between three and four hours.
“Clearing of trucks will reduce to less than one hour,” he says.

The OSBP is the latest initiative to reduce the time spent by the private sector as they move goods across East Africa.

Other initiatives that have already been launched are the Automated System for Customs Data (Asycuda) which is a web based system that enables the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to get documents like the shipping manifests from the Uganda and Rwanda revenue authority systems.

READ: Online cargo system to boost Kenya hub status

Mr Sabiiti said that Asycuda has enabled the working of the Single Customs Territory between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since KRA can import documents from URA and RRA websites, which in turn allows for faster clearance of goods.