Trade ministry lacks funds to operationalise border export zones

PIC: Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde watering a tree during a field visit to Mirama hills border. (Credit: Shamim Saad)

BUSINESS | TRADE

The establishment of border export zones and their operationalisation will have to wait until the trade ministry gets funding.  

Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde made the revelation at the recently concluded sector review meeting. She said because of lack of funding, they cannot recruit the human resource needed to run the facilities.

In 2010, the Government developed and adopted a border export zone/border market programme to position the country for regional market opportunities.

Land has been secured in seven districts for the project, including Amuru (247 acres at Elegu), Busia (173 acres at Masafu) Kabale (238.8Acrs at Katuna) Kasese (3 acres at Mpondwe), Manafwa (89.3 at Lwakhakha) and Koboko (78 hectares at Oraba).

To that effect, development of master plans and documentation of bills of quantity, in addition to environmental impact assessment, have been undertaken for Elegu, Lwakhakha, Busia, Katuna, Kikagati and Oraba, according to Kyambadde.

The Government secured one million Euros from COMESA for the construction of one border market in the next financial year, the minister said.

She added that additional funding worth $2million has been secured from World Bank under the GLTF to develop a border market at Mpondwe border export zone that was launched in September this year.

"This leaves out all the other mark zones, but government is in the process of mobilizing funds to ensure that construction of all the export zones are completed within 10 years," Kyambadde said.

She hailed donors through Trademark East Africa, for supporting the development of the Uganda Electronic Single Window (UESW), a trade facilitation aimed at reducing the time taken to clear goods. Agencies already on the single window include URA, UCDA, UNBS, NDA, and Ministry of trade among others.

Another trade intervention supported by DFID through TMEA is the One Stop Border Post (OSBP) and Trade Information Portal among other interventions.

According to a senior program officer at TMEA, Damali Ssali, the OSBP means that when a truck or passenger is entering Uganda from Kenya, at say Busia border, they clear all border processes on one side of the border which automatically cuts down border crossing time by more than 50%.

Ssali explained that in the second phase of their trade facilitation programs they will continue to focus on reducing barriers to trade and improving business competitiveness by supporting the implement the National Export Development Strategy and Cross border Trade.