Kenya is looking to establish more One-Stop Border Points (OSBPs) along the Kenya-Ethiopia border to facilitate trade. Treasury CS Ukur Yattani said that the government is working on implementing a free trade agreement with Ethiopia. The state sees the potential for additional revenue from the neighboring country, hence the bid to establish more border points.
Additional border points will improve the speed and efficiency of moving goods across the border. For example, the establishment of the Busia border Point in 2017 cut average vehicle time from 1 hour 26 minutes to 39 minutes.
Moreover, the increased border points will reduce barriers to trade between the two countries.
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The KRA will install facilities such as scanners and intelligent cargo verification tools to detect substandard cargo and misdeclarations. Additionally, Integrated cargo scanning solutions will help eliminate fraud and smuggling at the border.
“Movement of goods across the borders in undesignated crossing points amounts to smuggling,” said KRA commissioner Kevin Safari.
Underutilized Border Point Capacity
CS Yattani urged Kenyans to take advantage of the recently opened border point in Moyale to increase trade between Kenya and Ethiopia. The CS commented that traders are not utilizing Moyale and five other border points to their full capacity.
“We should see more trade volumes passing through the OSBP at Moyale – an indication of robust business activity between Kenya and Ethiopia. Unfortunately, we are not witnessing this,” said Yattani.
