By Tione Andsen
Mulanje, June 29, Mana: Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), Station Manager In-Charge for Muloza Border Post, Adjison Maziwire has said effects of Cyclone Freddy has negative affected the operations of the border post.
He said this Friday at Muloza Border Post during Media Tour on projects being implemented by Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity Project (SATCP) under Ministry of Transport and Public Works with funding from World Bank as part of the Nacala Corridor development.
Maziwire said Cyclones had damaged the road infrastructure and this forced business captain to opt for railway line in order to transport their goods and services.
“Before the Cyclone, we were handling huge volumes of goods from Mozambique in form of steel, bread flour, cooking oil, Molasses and we were exporting products like lime, eggs, chicks, plastics, paper sheeting’s and clothes. We are still recovering but most business entities they regard it as closed border due to the situation,” he added.
Maziwire said currently they are clearing 120 trucks and over 350 passenger service vehicles although the facility lacks proper parking space to handle large volumes of cargo.
Station Manager hoped that the construction of the new facility through SATCP funds would help to facilitate trade between the two country and enhance regional integration within the Nacala Corridor.
“We need to have a new facility which could handle the volumes of cargo unlike what we have now where trucks park along the M2 road waiting for clearance,” he observed.
Maziwire eluded to the fact that Muloza Border normally used as a transit route for goods from Tete to Nampula or vice versa.
He admitted that due to porous border, smuggling remains a challenge to them because the natural boundary between the two countries is a Muloza river.
“Muloza river is the natural boundary between the two and smugglers utilize the physical feature to smuggle goods during dry and rain seasons. We have a working partnership with communities who normally assist us to append them,” Maziwire added.
He said there would be a need to have a strong surveillance system in order to curb the malpractice because thus would turn into a conduit area for smugglers.
Road Authority (RA) Public Relations Manager, Portia Kajanga said with funds from SATCP, the border was earmarked for rehabilitation and expansion.
She said with the coming in of the Cyclone Freddy exposed that the site was disaster prone area and needs to be relocated to safe grounds.
“We have not come up with the plan for the new One Stop Border Post because we still doing some studies. The change in the initial plan will an implication on the original budget since there was no construction of road and bridge,” Kajanga explained.
She said an extra US$ 10 million would be needed to cover the shortfall in the implementation of the project at the site.
