East African Community Unveils Online Tool to Assess Effectiveness of One-Stop Border Posts
The East African Community (EAC) on 10th July 2023 introduced an online tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the 22 one-stop border posts (OSBPs) located throughout the region. Unveiled at the 14th African Union High-Level Private Sector Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, the One Stop Border Post Performance Measurement Tool aims to lower business expenses by reducing time and costs associated with crossing borders, thereby promoting intra-regional trade.
An online tool was on 10th July 2023 unveiled by the East African Community (EAC) to assess the effectiveness of the 22 one-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) located throughout the region.
In Nairobi, Kenya, at the 14th African Union High-Level Private Sector Forum, Annette Ssemuwumba, the EAC Secretary General in charge of Customs, Trade, and Monetary Affairs, unveiled the One Stop Border Post Performance Measurement Tool on behalf of Dr. Peter Mathuki, the EAC Secretary General.
The technology is now ready for use, Ssemuwemba declared, and the Partner States and stakeholders will begin data gathering, user-awareness training, and full distribution. By lowering the expenses of doing business by reducing the time and costs required to cross borders, OSPBs are a crucial component of the infrastructure at border crossing points and help to promote intra-regional trade.
Additionally, OSBPs minimise the excess paperwork that comes with the bureaucracies of two-stop border posts. Collective action for the best performance of the current OSBPs has frequently been slowed down by a lack of data to guide decision making on important areas such as OSBP performance, human resources, and the status of the physical and digital infrastructure. The OSBP Performance Measurement Tool will include a variety of measurements, such as the amount of time spent on administrative tasks, the amount spent on transportation and inventory, and the amount of money collected and traded.
The data produced by the measurement tool will be used by customs administrators throughout the EAC region to evaluate OSBP performance and implement improvement plans. The tool was specifically created to give the essential mechanism to gauge OSBP performance on six fronts: time, cost, volume/throughput, infrastructure, inter-agency coordination, and user satisfaction.
According to Ssemuwemba, OSBPs are essential to the completion of infrastructure projects, improved market connection, and regional integration on the continent as a remedy for delays and expenses associated with transporting products and people.
“We will be able to gather and evaluate data in real-time thanks to the OSBP Performance Measurement tool, providing us with the most recent performance rates for wait times, clearance procedures, and trade flows. We will be able to quickly identify bottlenecks and other problems thanks to this real-time data, which will facilitate quicker decision-making and efficient resource allocation, according to the Deputy Secretary General.
Through Trade Mark Africa – TMA (formerly Trade Mark East Africa), USAID has helped to build the OSBP performance measurement instrument. This adds to the TMA relationship with EAC Partner States, which invested over US$117 million in the construction and operationalization of 16 of the region’s 22 OSBPs.
Alban Odhiambo, Senior Director for Trade Environment at TradeMark Africa, stated that increased trade within the area was necessary to guarantee a return on investment on the development of the OSBPs. “A lot of human, financial, and time capital has been invested in setting up the OSBPs; as a result, we must ensure that we maximise value through routine evaluation and improvement as this is crucial to containing operating expenses in the EAC.”
The EAC continues to put concerted efforts to improve overall trade facilitation and business environment. Some of the measures that have been introduced include the implementation of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) which has reduced the time and cost of cargo transportation from the ports to the hinterland, and the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) Scheme, which offers priority clearance of goods for trusted operators and the One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs), which has shifted border operations to one side of the border in the country of entry and ensures that all transactions are conducted at once by all agencies involved. The unveiling ceremony of the EAC OSBP Performance Measurement Tool was attended by Ministers responsible for EAC Affairs from the Partner States and other dignitaries from across the region.
