Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially opened the Moyale one-stop border post (OSBP) in efforts to boost economic ties between Kenya and her northern landlocked neighbour.
The border post is part of the planned Mombasa-Nairobi-Addis Ababa corridor linked by the 502-kilometre Hawassa-Moyale road project in Ethiopia, and the Isiolo-Moyale road in Kenya. According to PM Abiy, the inauguration of the OSBP is a clear demonstration of the commitment to enhanced trade by both countries.
“By aligning the working days and hours, procedures and formalities as well as through the development and sharing of common facilities and joint controls, the border post will reduce the time taken and costs incurred to clear good across both borders,” he said.
“Bringing under one roof essential trade services of both countries, revenue and customs authorities, immigration, security, trade plus many other services demonstrates the capacity for enabling economic transformation,” PM Abiy added.
Moyale one-stop border post
The Ethiopia-Kenyan border straddles over 830km of its territory, yet has only one OSBP in Moyale, Marsabit. An OSBP is a border crossing point where migration officials of both countries operate under one roof to facilitate trade and ease the movement of goods and people.
The border post was supposed to be commissioned last year after construction was completed in 2018 at a cost of over Sh 800million, but due to tensions at the border, this was postponed. The perennial conflicts in the area is one of the significant talking points that the two leaders are expected to focus on in their meetings.
Other areas marked for OSBPs include Siftu in Wajir, Markamari, Rhamu in Mandera, Todunyang in Turkana. Kenya and Ethiopia signed an agreement for preferential access aimed at fostering economic co-operation in 2012, emphasising on trade, investment, infrastructure, food security and sustainable livelihoods.
The two countries also established the Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) tasked with driving bilateral ties, in addition to more than 30 agreements and MoUs spanning nearly all economic, social and political spheres including security, defence and trade, movement of people, transport, and culture. Last year’s entry of Equity Bank into the Ethiopian market, four years after KCB became the first Kenyan bank to open a representative office in Addis Ababa, is also seen as a huge boost for Kenyans eyeing the huge market.
