Delays at Trans-Kalahari border post slow down intraregional trade

Increasing delays and other costs involved in the clearance and release of goods at the Trans-Kalahari border post contribute to the slowing down of intraregional trade in southern Africa.

This is according to a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Trans-Kalahari Time Release study, launched by the SADC Secretariat on Thursday.

The study, conducted between October 2023 and 25 March 2024, was a joint initiative between the Namibia Revenue Agency (Namra) and the SADC Secretariat.

Head consultant Paulinus Tiromwe says the increasing number of government agencies currently operating at border posts exacerbates delays and increases costs to business. These agencies operate in silos, escalating opportunity costs and increasing risks for business.

He says the average time taken to submit documents to customs after the arrival of goods processes have been finalised is an hour and three minutes at the Trans-Kalahari border post.

“This is on a higher end for borders like Trans-Kalahari. After customs has printed and delivered a release order to the clearing agent, it takes 12 hours and 18 minutes to report for the next process. This is too much time and delays the process of clearance at the border.

“Other government agencies take an average of 37 minutes and exit processes take eight minutes. The five hours and 50 minutes taken to process import transit transactions at the border is on the higher side,” he says.

The report also found that importers with preferential treatment are not given priority, making the process even slower.

Namra commissioner Sam Shivute says the government is successfully executing the free trade agreement (FTA) with a number of trade facilitation programmes.

“To assess the impact of the Trans-Kalahari/Mamuno border post on increased efficiency along the Trans-Kalahari Corridor, it was crucial that Namibia identify the bottlenecks that obstruct cross-border trade and to establish a baseline for the time it takes to clear people and goods at the border post,” Shivute says.