IN November 2020, a financing agreement was signed under the EU-COMESA 11th European Development Fund to upgrade three Zambian border posts namely Nakonde in Northern Province, Mwami in Eastern, and Chirundu in Southern Province.
And on February 25, 2022, the 6.8 million Euros project was officially launched – a Zambian government partnership with the European Union as financier and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as facilitator.
The Zambia Border Posts Upgrade Project (ZBPUP) is aimed at improving intraregional trade flows of goods, people and services. Specifically, the project focuses on interventions identified as key to improving Zambia’s trade and trade facilitation profile.
Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MCTI) dispatched a team of journalists from various media institutions on a media monitoring mission to the three border posts, and this author was part of the Nakonde mission.
For one who has never been to Nakonde before, imaginations about the border town are so huge and fascinating. One imagines an illuminating and noisy cosmopolitan environment like that of Livingstone. The noise is there, truly, coming from the never-ending queues of trucks, motorbikes and cars. Swarms of traders and unemployed youths who barely ‘harass’ people crossing into the Tanzanian town of Tunduma as they promise to ‘help’ those seeking to buy merchandise. What an irritating experience, only reminiscent of Lusaka’s Intercity Bus Terminus! Anyway, that’s a story for another day.
Back to the main story. The media team spoke to various stakeholders (agencies) relevant to this project, which include government departments and cross border traders. It will be noticed that there are fewer successes than challenges, a sign that the project is still very important to this cause. There is a lot more to be achieved. And this article will not mask these challenges; it will attempt to highlight only some of them due to limited space.
Successes of the project If there is an interesting to A pick into the Nakonde border post upgrade project The Mast, Tuesday May 24, 2022 5 any project, it’s hearing the success stories.
Technologically, the general view was that the border post has improved in terms of quick clearing of goods and services. Thanks to heavy investment in the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) – a computerised system designed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to administer a country’s customs. It handles manifests and customs declarations, accounting procedures, transit and suspense procedures. ASYCUDA also generates trade data that can be used for statistical economic analysis. The ASYCUDA software is developed in Geneva by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Other stakeholders appreciated capacity building the programme has implemented among various agents there. They cited their new knowledge on customs procedures resulting from training conducted by staff from the MCTI and COMESA.
Moreover, other stakeholders appreciated the slightly expanded infrastructure, describing it as much better than what existed before. An overview is that, technological upgrade and capacity building programmes have been a success so far. However, these successes are outweighed by challenges as shall be outlined later.
Challenges According to all stakeholders, first among the challenges is the small size of the border infrastructure. Nakonde is one of the biggest border posts in terms of revenue collection. According to an official at the Ministry of Finance, this year alone, the border targets to collect an average of K320 million per month, translating into about K3.8 billion for the whole year. Yet, infrastructure at the border is not enough to support an increase in revenue. If expanded, the border post could collect even three times the projected figures. As things stand, according to stakeholders, the current infrastructure does not in fact support the standard of a one stop border post. There is surely more work to be done.
Secondly, all stakeholders complained of the porousness of the border. That it is too wide and does not have physical structure to regulate the movement of people as well as the in and outflow of motor traffic. Due to this situation, there is heavy smuggling of goods, which results in loss of revenue that should have gone into the national treasury. The porousness of the border is equally a big security concern, according to stakeholders.
Other stakeholders expressed concern that the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has not given them administrative rights to the clearing system so that they can also intervene in their line of duty whenever need arises.
Lack of an inspection yard is another challenge highlighted by stakeholders. Right now, there is no inspection yard, not even a truck yard at the border. Yet, there are volumes of trucks crossing the border in and out of Zambia. The Zambia Revenue Authority has a rented track yard which is about 10 kilometres away from the border off the Nakonde-Isoka road, and with minimal staff against hundreds of trucks flowing in per day. Because of this, other agencies said they are highly disadvantaged as some of them do not have transport to drive that distance and witness physical inspections of trucks when need arises. If there were a clearing yard within the border confines, all stakeholders would witness physical truck inspections from one place at the same time.
Others cited lack of coordination from ZRA when they conducting physical inspections. According to them, ZRA does not inform other agencies whenever they are conducting physical inspections of trucks; that these stakeholders have to depend on clearing agents to alert them. In a normal situation, this should not be the case, anyway.
Additionally, some stakeholders highlighted faults that the scanner develops sometimes. They said the scanner sometimes becomes malfunctional such that it gives false or blared images, making it difficult for customs officials to detect the actual contents in a truck. Hence, they resort to physical inspections amidst heavy understaffing in ZRA.
The challenges are too numerous to highlight in one newspaper page. Suffice to mention that this project should continue because the need for its existence in our borders is now more than ever before. From improved technology, infrastructure is certainly the next priority if Zambia is to truly facilitate free flow of trade and attract more revenue. When one compares infrastructure at Nakonde with that at neighbouring Tunduma, there’s a sharp contradiction.
Without malice, Nakonde certainly looks like a village, notwithstanding the amount of revenue it brings to the national treasury. In fact, this is an injustice to the border town, which the State should correct and atone for. It’s like milking a golden cow without feeding it; this is what has been happening to Nakonde. The State should be formulating an annual budget specifically for the development of Nakonde and other border towns bringing in revenue with this magnitude. Depending on cooperating partners all the time defeats all logic.
