EAC
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Tanzania awaits Kenya for Holili border status
HOLILI POST: TradeMark East Africa has been providing the technical know-how for the OSBP system.
ARUSHA, Tanzania - The government is waiting for Kenya to sign off on a bilateral agreement concerning starting operations at the newly refurbished Holili border post.
The East African Community (EAC) is developing one stop’s posts at 15 border crossings in the five partner states to ease trade and quicken integration.
Holili is in Kilimanjaro region, nearly 117 kilometres from Arusha. Operations can only start after the signing of the bilateral agreement between Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania.
The Tanzania Cabinet has already given a go-ahead for further action.
Trademark East Africa (TMEA) is facilitating the process so that the two governments could agree on the signing date.
Since December, a new $5.7 million donor-funded facility at the Holili border post on the Tanzania side, has been ready, equiped with state-of -the art facilities.
“Infrastructure and everything on Tanzania’s side is ready since December. We are just waiting for the signing of a bilateral agreement,” the TMEA, Director for Integrated Border Management, Theo Lyimo told reporters who toured Holili and Taveta border post facilities recently.
Taveta, a border post on the Kenyan side, has a similar facility worth $6.7 million nearing completion.
According to officials of Trademark East Africa, who provided financial support for the one-stop border post infrastructures, said, operations of the project can as well begin with the facility on the Tanzanian side.
TMEA is providing funding and technical support to facilitate implementation of the integrated border management systems at Holili and Taveta border posts.
He said the signing of a bilateral agreement was important to allow operations of the much awaited project aimed at improving efficiency at border posts.
The construction of the two OSBP projects at Holili and Taveta are expected to reduce 30% total average time to clear cargo at the borders. This in turn will reduce transport costs and increase trade volumes.
According to TMEA, Holili border currently serves between 40 and 50 trucks a day, but the volume of traffic is likely to significantly increase up to between 400 and 450 trucks once the Voi-Taveta part of the road is upgraded.
By Elisha Mayallah, Sunday, April 13th, 2014