Africa-Press – Botswana. The turning of Mamuno/Trans Kalahari border posts into a 24-hour operating facility will boost tourism in the SADC region to enrich and develop the lives of both Botswana and Namibia citizenry.
This was said by Minister of Finance, Ms Peggy Serame during the operation’s launch at the Botswana and Namibia border posts recently.
She said the development would have a positive impact on the lives of people of Namibia’s Omaheke region as well as those of Charles Hill District in Botswana.
Social and economic activities shall be borne from the initiative, said Ms Serame.
The minister said the initiative came at an opportune time when Namibia and Botswana had recently ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement and stood ready to reap the intended benefits.
Ms Serame said the initiative would go a long way in facilitating movement of goods in and out of Africa by making use of the port of Walvis Bay as well as the Botswana Dry Port.
On average, P15 billion’s worth of imports are processed annually at Mamuno Border Post while 8 800 commercial trucks ferried cargo across the post every month.
The latest initiative follows implementation in February of the decision to use identity cards as travel documents between Botswana and Namibia.
Ms Serame said the use of identity cards as travel documents was in line with the aspirations of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
The MoU focuses on the development and management of the Trans Kalahari Corridor along which Mamuno and Trans Kalahari border posts are located.
Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Ms Anna Mokgethi stressed the importance of continually reviewing processes to ensure faster movement of goods and services across the two countries’ border posts.
She noted that 24-hour operations required more human resources and infrastructural developments especially additional staff housing and office accommodation.
The two countries should therefore ensure that resources were provided to facilitate general service delivery and enable staff to address the ever changing customer needs, she said.
Namibia’s Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, Dr Albert Kawana said Trans Kalahari/Mamuno border posts operating on a 24-hour basis would serve the logistic hub concept well.
Dr Kawana said such hubs were large scale structures within which different logistics service providers collaborated on offering value added services through sharing of assets.
He said the hubs impacted on the efficiency of operations and transportation systems.
Dr Kawana said the port of Walvis Bay, which Botswana was now effectively linked to, presented the country with an opportunity to have access to sea transportation.
He reported that 214 Namibians and 525 Batswana had crossed the border using national identity cards since implementation of the decision in February.
That, he said, was a significant movement towards boosting trade between the two nations with more benefits expected to be realised.
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