While Malawi’s economy has suffered from a lack of investment and high trade costs due to poor logistics and infrastructure.

The construction from 2015 of border posts in Dedza and Mwanza (bordering Mozambique) and Songwe (bordering Tanzania) and the setting up of OSBPs with these neighbouring countries has seen the time needed to clear a truck carrying essential items such as wheat, fertilizers, groceries and raw materials for Malawi’s manufacturing industry slashed from 24 to 36 hours, to less than half a day.

This is due to the construction of the OSBP facility, which the World Bank say it has supported with $91.7 million backing that was funnelled through the Southern Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project. “The objective was to reduce the cost of cross-border transactions by supporting the modernisation, simplification, and harmonisation of the trade and transit procedures and policies,” the World Bank said in a statement.

Malawi also established the National Single Window (NSW), an electronic platform system connecting international trade and transport stakeholders to fulfil all imports, exports, and transit border control procedures.

The Dedza One-Stop Border Post, which was completed in 2023, boasts two examination bays for goods, parking spots for 100 freight trucks, and a modern passenger terminal.

Previously, the lack of parking facilities meant that the road leading to the border post was always congested, as trucks scrambled for space to park while waiting to be cleared. “We now take less than half a day to process all the paperwork to clear the goods that we have carried, which is far less than the minimum of three days that we used to spend here,” says Flatella Makwakwa, a truck driver who has been using the Dedza border for more than three years.

The World Bank has advocated for the establishment of more OSBPs.

--ChannelAfrica\Linda Kea Moreotsene--