By Kalata News,
Chipata – ESTABLISHMENT of One Stop Border Posts (OSBP) in Zambia has improved inter-trade between Zambia and its neighbours, says Director of Trade in the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MCTI), Simon Ngona.
Speaking to journalists gathered at a media sensitization workshop in the City of Chipata, about 550 km East of Lusaka, Dr. Ngona said the introduction of OSBP between Zambia and its neighbours has smoothened border crossings by people, goods and services, especially cargo vehicles.
“Before the coming of One Stop Border Posts, crossings by vehicles especially cargo trucks, used to take a long time resulting in the increased costs to businesses due to time spent and damage to goods at the borders,” explained Dr. Ngona.
The media sensitisation workshop is organised by the Zambia Border Posts Upgrading Project (ZBPUP) of the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry and is being held at Chansolo Lodge.
He said currently Zambia has established four OSBPs namely Chirundu between Zambia and Zimbabwe, Nakonde between Zambia and Tanzania, Mwami-Mchinji between Zambia and Malawi and in Kazungulu among Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
“The One Stop Border Posts apart from improving the coordination between Zambia and its neighbours, have resulted in increased trade and revenue collected at these border posts resulting from increased crossings,” said Dr. Ngona.
There are 43 border posts in Zambia out of which four are OSBPs. The first OSBP to be established was in Chirundu while the Mwami-Muchinji OSBP is the latest. Kazungula is said to be the most advanced of the four OSBPs in terms of size and the volume of activities conducted with it.
Dr. Ngona said the media sensitization workshops were part of the Zambia Border Posts Upgrading Project planned activities as agreed between the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry and the project partners.
The ZBPUP is a 6.8 million Euro funded regional integration project by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) through the European Union (EU) 11th European Development Fund (EDF) Programme grant to support trade facilitation programmes between Zambia and its neighbours.
So far two media sensitisation works have taken place with the first meeting being held in Lusaka in March, 2022 and attended by about 18 journalists and some editors.
Twenty-seven journalists drawn from various major local and national media based in Lusaka and Chipata are attending the Chipata Sensitization Workshop.
“You will agree with me that when border posts are efficiently working to facilitate cross border trade, there will be a win-win situation for the country. For example, positive response since the launch of the Mwami OSBP last year indicate that revenue collection has increased from about 50 million Kwacha to about 80 million Kwacha,” said Dr. Ngona Director of Trade at the Zambian Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry.
