BILATERAL AGREEMENT DELAY OPERATIONALIZATION OF HOLILI ONE STOP BORDER POST

EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY

Tanzania and Kenya’s delay to sign a Bilateral Agreement on One Stop Border Post (OSBP) has interrupted the operationalization of Holili (OSBP) on the Tanzania side.

 Construction of Holili OSBP on Tanzania side was completed in December last year but the $5.7 million State-of-the-Art structure has remained idle for three months as the two Partner States still work on the legal text of the Bilateral Agreement.

 The construction of Taveta OSBP on the Kenya side is expected to be completed within two months and according to the financiers, Trademark East Africa (TMEA), the operationalization of Holili could have continued without waiting for Taveta had the two countries signed the agreement.

According to TMEA Director, Integrated Border Management and One Stop Border Posts, Mr Theo Lyimo, the East African Community (EAC) passed a law on OSBP in April 2013 but it has not been assented to by the EAC Heads of States. 

“Even if it (the law) will be signed, Legislations will be needed. This could take longer and that’s why the two countries opted for a bilateral agreement,’ said Mr Lyimo during a tour organised by TMEA for regional Journalists this week. 

Mr. Lyimo said the bilateral agreement would be used in place of OSBP law because it could have taken longer to amend series of EAC laws, including the Customs Union Managements Act, so as to provide for changes in the way people will be crossing the borders under OSBP concept. 

He said Tanzania had already approved the Bilateral Agreement and forwarded it to Kenya but the Kenyan side were waiting for the approval of the Cabinet. 

The construction of the two OSBP projects at Holili and Taveta are expected to reduce 30 per cent total average time to clear cargo at the borders, which will in turn contribute to reducing transport costs and increase in intra-regional and foreign trade in EAC. 

According to TMEA, Holili border currently serves between 40 to 50 trucks a day but the volume of traffic is likely to significantly increase up to between 400 to 450 trucks once the Voi-Taveta part of the road is upgraded. 

The increase in traffic is likely because the distance by road from Mombasa port to Himo junction in Tanzania is much shorter (about 472 kilometres) compared to the much longer distance from Dar es Salaam port to Himo junction (935).Journalists from Tanzania and Kenya who visited Holili and Taveta witnessed a handful of trucks from Mombasa port offloading goods, including the cars for clients from Northern Regions of Tanzania.   

Traders and truck drivers complained about the delays in clearance of goods at Holili border basically due to what they called ‘volatility’ of network systems used by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to valuate duties to be paid by importers. 

Apparently, Holili TRA Customs office only assesses the goods then sends information to Dar es Salaam for evaluation and this according to the traders could take weeks depending on the stability of the network.“Sometimes I stay here for two weeks this makes my business difficult as I have to pay container demurrage charges”, said Emmanuel Justine (36) adding that the delays also restricts the number of trips he makes per month. 

Under the new OSBP concept, TMEA provides Microwave System for data transmission and storage, which is faster and bigger, as opposed to the satellite system currently used by TRA.Also TMEA is working with JICA with the aim of installing another system which will enable documents to be lodged at the point of entry (Mombasa port) to enable faster clearance at Holili. 

The EAC OSBP project focuses on setting up the institutional and legal framework necessary for increasing collaboration at Inter-agency and bilateral levels, reviewing and implementing OSBP procedures, training border agency officials, and installing ICT networks, hardware, furniture and equipment.  TMEA finances construction of 13 OSBP in the entire EAC region.