Katanga Border Post - a border without boundaries

ABOUT THE BORDER

The Katanga Border Post project is located within the border city of Kasumbalesa and is the main gateway to the mineral rich (copper, cobalt, gold, tantalite, manganese etc) Katanga province ("DRC"), with the Republic of Zambia and onward, through the regional ports, to clients all over the world.

The border-town of Kasumbalesa is approximately 100Km South/South-East of the capital of the Katnaga province-the city of Lubumbashi. More than 10 million people reside at the Katanga province and the only channel for their welfare is via this border. This crossing point, being the main border crossing point, caters for all commercial traffic entering into and out of the DRC.

Kasumbalesa attracts traffic originating from or destined to the ports of South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Namibia, as well as traffic originating from or destined to various SADC countries. The main traffic is comprised of high value minerals (copper, cobalt ) and mining input such as coal, sulphur, fuel, sulphuric acid as well as construction material, mining equipment, agricultural produce, food, etc.

The border post had long been identified by SADC, COMESA and the North South Corridor forums as one of the main regional obstacles for the flow of regional trade and therefore earmarked by the regional heads of state as one of the main priority areas towards the introduction of stat-of-the-art newly constructed facilities. Adequate border crossing facilities is a critical element for the flow of traffic from and to the DRC and it is therefore considered as a "Life Line" to the regional economies.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Project scope:

Constructed in under 1 year
3,000 sq/m of a new modern air-conditioned office complex
Over 50,000 sq/m of parking space for heavy duty and light trucks
6 lanes for south bound and north bound traffic instead of the previous single entry/exit lane
Adequate access to various utilities; water, electricity, toilet and sewage and communication
Clearance time per truck 20 - 120 minutes assuming the clearing documents are available and complies with the DRC laws
Number of fully contracted employees: over 160

I.T. System:

Highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art system for the purpose of traffic control
Automated entry/exit lanes including license plate recognition technology
Fully automated Control Room to monitor the smooth flow of traffic in the terminal
Advanced point-of-sale (POS) computerized cash machines
CCTV cameras covering internal and external areas
Public Announcement system

PROJECT BENEFITS

The rationale behind the Katanga Border Post Project is easily explained by describing the 360 degrees of positive impact to all key stake-holders:

Government:

The new facilities provides: sufficient office space, secured office facilities, adequate number of counters and computers enabling fast tracking of commercial truck drivers in terms of Customs and Immigration procedures without any increase in the number of Government staff.

Increased efficiency of various Government agencies.
Increased Government collection and funds inflows.
Improved co-ordination between various Government agencies.
Construction of modern facilities at no direct cost to Government.
Improved environment for monitoring goods and people to ensure compliance with international laws and standards on the transportation of goods.

Transporters, Drivers and cargo owners:

Reduced crossing times.
Shorter turn-around times resultsing in higher utilization of the same fleet.
Secured environment for the cargo owners.
Shorter credit time granted by the mining companies for copper and cobalt usually sold on a FOB basis, thus improved cash flow to all involved.
Clean, secure parking environment for drivers with essential sanitary conditions.
Separation between passenger traffic and commercial traffic, while improving the crossing experience for the passengers.

Social and Community:

Employment creation and work related benefits (health, pension, etc.).
New business opportunities to the local community.
Decongestion of the area while improving the “quality of living” alongside the road and within the proximity of the border area.
Knowledge transfer in IT related jobs.

Regional:

Improve traffic flow throughout the region for the benefit of all regional countries.
Increasing the trade capacity of the border allowing for improved processing of larger volumes of passengers and goods.
Regional integration efforts to harmonize cross border policies and procedures aimed to implement a Customs Union.

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