GHANA and Togo will have a joint border post operational by the end of the year after the European Union availed ₣11,3 million ($12,3 million) for the construction of the facility linking the two west African countries.
By our staff
Speaking during a tour of the joint border post, Ghana Roads and Highways ministry planner Josephine Badoo said the border would reduce traffic congestion and delays would be reduced through joint border processing.
“The border post is sitting on 17 acres of land and it will be supervised by Ecowas,” Badoo said.
“The construction of the border post is complete. We have bought the equipment and it is in the country, but we have not yet put it in place.”
Ecowas communication director Warkani Haruna said plans were underway to introduce biometric cards that would ease the movement of people in the region.
“The biometric cards will remove the need for citizens to require a resident’s permit. Citizens will move to any country of their choice, ” Haruna said.
The border post will house customs, immigration and other government departments from the two countries. Badoo said the average time taken by cross-border drivers at Ghana’s border posts was long.
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“It takes 38 hours for truck drivers to be cleared at Elubo, Aflao 22 hours and one hour 17 mins to be cleared at Paga border posts. We hope to reduce traffic by three to five hours. Currently the truck drivers wait at two sides — Togo and Ghana side,” Badoo said.
She said the joint border post was constructed at Noepe and the handover was done by the two countries’ heads of State in November last year. Badoo said Ghana was working on the construction of Elubo and Paga joint border posts and land for Paga had been acquired and handed over to Ecowas.
In southern Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia have a one-stop shop (OSS) border post which is similar to the joint border post. The OSS has reduced the time that is taken by truck drivers on the Chirundu border post to less than half an hour from the over seven days that one used to spend at the border post.
The truck drivers no longer have to wait for long queues to be cleared. The system is effective and has been automated. The Chirundu border post between Zimbabwe and Zambia presents a good model for joint border posts.
Zimbabwe is yet to come up with a joint border post with South Africa which is one of the border posts that has so much traffic, but has delays due to poor organisation.
