The Busia one stop border post, Uganda’s second busiest entry point has Saturday been officially commissioned in what President Yoweri Museveni called a significant stride in furthering integration of East Africa through trade and services.
The one stop border post was commissioned by President Museveni together with his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta at the Eastern border town of Busia.
Handling the second biggest transit traffic into Uganda after Malaba still on the Kenyan border, Busia deals with human and cargo traffic to and from the Great Lakes region of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and South Sudan.
According to statistics by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), since the Busia border post was operationalized in 2015, revenue collections (at Busia alone) have grown by 45% from Shs 436 billion in the 2013/14 financial year to Shs 798 billion in the 2016/17 financial year.
Cross border human traffic has also increased to an average of 23 buses/800 passengers (inward/outwards) and 230 trucks of which 90 are fuel tankers, 140 are imports of general goods, and 85 carrying export goods.
This spike is attributed to the faster turn around times given that clearance time was reduced from 3 days to 2 hours, subsequently cutting on the costs of doing business. Barrier gate clearance time has reduced from about 30 minutes per truck to 20 minutes daily.
Speaking at the commissioning, President Museveni said that Saturday’s development showed that Africa is getting out of slumber.
“What we have done today shows that Africa is getting out of slumber. This explains my push for integration of East Africa and Africa,” said the President in his remarks, adding that “integration ensures prosperity of our people through trade and services; this one-stop border will make it easy for trade to happen”.
He said that the integration of East Africa is necessitated by among others similarities in ethnicities especially in the case of Uganda and Kenya.
Museveni revealed that the now commissioned Busia facility will be improved with X-ray technology to check loaded trucks and stop the method of manual checking.
“We need to use modern technology. We are also working on using radar stations on the lake to curb fish smuggling and catching immature fish”.
On his part, Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta said that East Africa’s integration will be achieved with the development of shared infrastructure and political commitment of regional leaders.
He noted that the region must integrate to be a truly bigger market, and economically attractive to compete with other economic giants.
“We want to compete with the economic giants of the world. If we have to compete with giants we have to be giants ourselves,” said President Kenyatta.
Kenyatta stated that regional leaders have expressed commitment towards the process of integration and that the efforts are bearing fruit.
“I am glad that the people and the leadership of the East African Community have taken this point to heart: wherever I go in the region, I find a new appreciation of the importance of integration, and a new commitment to bringing the people of East Africa together,” said President Kenyatta.
The Busia border post has led to a 56% growth in the value of exports between 2014/15 and 2016/17 financial years, with grain (maize and beans) and milk as the top export commodities.
Busia is one of the other entry points to Uganda currently operating under the Coordinated Border Management (CBM) Concept. Others are Malaba, Mutukula, Mirama hills (Kagitumba), Katuna and Cyanika.
The URA Acting Commissioner General Mr. Henry Martin Saka explained that the Busia one stop border post brings all government agencies from Uganda and Kenya together working under the same roof to complete all entry and exit formalities for both passenger and cargo.
This ensures faster border clearance and limited duplication of border agency interventions facilitates freedom of movement for persons and goods and gradually reducing the cost of doing business.
