Freight forwarders will be faced with border delays throughout Africa for as long as governments fail to transform their customs operations, according to Etiyel Chibira.Drawing on over 18 years of experience in cross-border policy and regulation, as well as trade facilitation, Chibira writes “border posts in Africa are often gridlocked with inefficiency of customs operations, which also has a negative impact on Africa’s global trade performance. “The bottlenecks result in delays, long transit times, congestion and illicit trade f lowing through some of the border posts,” he writes in a blog published by Tralac.Customs delays are caused by a wide range of issues, including lack of harmonisation and standardised systems, some borders still being on manual customs management systems, poorly trained and inadequate staff, uncoordinated customs operating hours at the same border, and excessive documentation and physical inspections.“Despite many clear and well-documented benefits regarding improving customs efficiency, the challenges haven’t been resolved yet,” he writes.This is due to a combination of weak institutional structures, lack of transparency, and corruption.“Certain actors seem to benefit from the existence of chaos at border posts and often manipulate manual procedures“Not every country clearly demonstrates political will and commitment to transforming the customs environment, which weakens efforts to clean up the environment of corruption and improve integrity,” he adds.Many of these weaknesses need to be addressed through the rollout of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).The objective is for countries to reduce and then eliminate tariffs on 90% of goods traded between African states over the next 10 years.At present, only a few countries, such as Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana and South Africa, have customs procedures required by AfCFTA provisions in place, according to researchers David Luke, Judith Ameso, and Mahlet Girma Bekele.
