Rwanda and Uganda one stop border post reduces clearance time • 2017-09-14

KIGALI Rwanda (Xinhua) — The newly operational One Stop Border Post (OSBP) facilities at the Rwanda-Ugandan border at Kagitumba, Nyagatare district has reduced clearance time by 25 percent, officials said.
An OSBP is a “one stop” form of border crossing point jointly managed by neighboring countries, with officials from host and neighboring country sitting under one roof on either side of the border.

This allows travelers to stop only once at the country of destination, where their travel or other documents are stamped both exit (from country of origin official) and entry (by country of destination official) at the same time, thus the “One Stop”.

This eliminates double clearing and enables cross border trade documentation to be done on the order side of destination thus reducing time it takes to cross border.

A survey in March 2016, established that total clearing time at the border already reduced by 25 percent from 5 hours to 3:45 hours within 3 months of operation.

Time reductions are estimated to hit 30 percent by June 2017, TradeMark Africa (TMA) said in a statement Tuesday.

“Never in my life did I imagine anything like this would happen. Clearance is just easy,” said Joseph Manzi, a Rwandan who lives in Nyagatare, a border town, and has done small cross-border business for about ten years.

Further, various initiatives are being undertaken to popularize the border crossing to attract 60 percent of Northern Corridor, according to officials.

To improve physical connectivity, two bridges were constructed with one serving cargo and passengers going to Uganda and the second serving those entering Rwanda.

Source: Africa Trade Investment Hub