Africa: Holili One-Stop Border Post Set to Boost EA Trade • 2017-08-14

Volumes of traffic and revenue collection at the Holili border post will pick up tremendously after rehabilitation of the Arusha – Voi road, especially the Kenyan section of the highway which is being paved for the first time.

According to a report presented to the minister for Finance and Planning Dr. Phillip Mpango ahead of last Saturday’s official inauguration of the first integrated border post in Africa, a dozen others are being constructed all over the region to ease the flow of goods and trade facilitation.

The Tanzanian officials at the shared facility said the expected increase of volume of goods and people through the introduction of One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) would partly depend on the condition of the road networks connecting them with the adjacent countries.

“It is our hope that the number will rise when the construction of the Taveta-Voi road is completed”, the report said.

The Arusha-Moshi-Holili road extends from the Taveta border post in Kenya to Voi ( a total of 157km) and its upgrading through a loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) aims to improve movement of people and goods within the region. It will also link the Mombasa port with northern Tanzania and the land-locked EAC member countries.

The stretch on the Kenyan side is part of the the Arusha-Moshi-Holili-Taveta-Voi road which will be massively upgraded under the African Road Project (EARP).

A similar work has started on the Tanzanian side but only for the 14 kilometre portion from Arusha to Tengeru. The remaining 96km stretch to Moshi and the border town, which had been in paved condition,for decades will await availability of funds from the donors, according to the African Community (EAC) officials.

While civil works have just commenced on the dual-carriage between the city and Tengeru township, construction of a by-pass road around Arusha that will link the Namanga road with the highway to Moshi and which is part of the $ 240m road project, is yet to begin as it is awaiting compensation of families whose houses would be demolished.

President John Pombe Magufuli and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday (March 3rd) laid a foundation stone for the Arusha-Holili road at Tengeru. A similar event took place at Taveta on the Kenyan side last October and was graced by the Kenyan leader and Dr. Jakaya Kikwete before the latter stepped down.

Last week’s inauguration of the ultra modern border post at Holili signaled the beginning of the operationalization of the OSBP concept, the arrangement which reduces the number of stops incurred in a cross border trade transaction by combining the activities of both countries’ border organizations at a single location with simplified exit and entry procedures and joint processing, where possible.

Motor vehicles and pedestrians only stop in the country of entry and perform exit and entry border formalities. One-stop is achieved by placing the border officials of two adjoining countries at each other’s adjoining border post so that each border post controls only the traffic entering the country.

The exit formalities of the exit country and the entry formalities of the country of entry are carried out at the border post in the country of entry. The event was graced by the minister responsible for African Cooperation Dr. Augustine Mahiga and his Kenyan counterpart, the Cabinet Secretary holding the EAC docket Ms Phyllis Kandie.

It took place in the presence of high ranking officials from both countries and representatives of the development partners including the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica) which financed the project and TradeMark Africa (TMA) which has been involved in its execution.

According to TMA, a donor-supported organization formed in 2010 to facilitate cross-border business in the region, until last year the Holili border served only between 40 and 50 trucks of goods a day but the traffic volume is expected to increase significantly to 400 to 500 trucks a day once the Taveta/Voi road is completed.

The unveiling of the border post structures at Holili/Taveta before hundreds of cheering people from the two countries was one of the regional events which took place as Arusha hosted the 17 Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State on Wednesday.

The regional leaders’ meeting was preceded by the African Regional Business Leaders’s Summit on Tuesday at the Mt. Meru Hotel hosted by the African Business Council (EABC), an apex body of private sector associations which has an observer status to EAC.

Construction of the OSBP facility at Holili started in 2011 and was completed in late 2014. However, the $ 5. 7m state-of-art structures on the Tanzanian side remained idle for some time as the two countries were still working on the legal text of the Bilateral Agreement.

Cargo clearance at the border post is reported to have greatly improved trade between Kenya and Tanzania following the operalization of the facility last year, according to the border officials.

It used to take up to 33 hours to clear vehicles carrying cargo across the shared border but now it takes only nine hours. The facility will save time and money for traders ferrying goods to northern Tanzania from the Mombasa port and vice versa.

Source: All Africa