Zimbabwe and Zambia have begun reviewing the bilateral agreement governing the Chirundu One-Stop Border Post, but the exercise comes amid evidence that the facility has struggled to maintain the efficiency gains that once made it a flagship example of regional trade facilitation.

A Zimbabwean delegation led by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce is at Chirundu this week for the review, which aims to improve the movement of goods and people between the two countries and strengthen trade flows within SADC, COMESA and beyond.

The review is being undertaken under the principle of continuous improvement, but its significance goes beyond updating a bilateral agreement.

The negotiations come as questions are being raised over whether Chirundu is still functioning as the genuinely integrated one-stop border post it was designed to become, or whether infrastructure, technology and coordination problems are once again turning it into a costly bottleneck for regional trade.

Chirundu was launched in December 2009 as a landmark Zimbabwe-Zambia initiative intended to eliminate duplication of border procedures and reduce the time and cost of moving cargo between the two countries.

The initial results were substantial. A United Nations assessment found that average crossing times fell from about 120 hours before the one-stop model was introduced to around 25 hours by June 2012, while vehicle traffic increased by 65%.

The reduction in processing time was estimated to generate savings of approximately US$600,000 a day, demonstrating the economic value of efficient border management.

However, subsequent assessments suggest that some of those gains have been eroded.

The African Union’s One-Stop Border Post Status Report found that the average crossing time on the Zimbabwean side had increased from 14 hours in 2007 to 51 hours and 26 minutes in 2021, representing a 267% increase.

The report points to a fundamental infrastructure problem, noting that Chirundu was “originally designed as a two-stop border post” and that its conversion into a one-stop facility was not accompanied by sufficient infrastructure upgrades.

According to the report, “there were no provisions made for bypass roads between the two countries, maintaining a two-stop traffic flow system.”

The design weakness becomes more serious as traffic volumes increase.

The AU assessment also identified the positioning of the commercial scanner as a source of congestion. Incoming commercial vehicles have to cross outgoing traffic flows to access the scanner, creating “significant congestion and delays in both directions.”

This shifts the problem from one of staffing and processing to a broader infrastructure and design challenge.

The difficulties cannot therefore be reduced to the speed of customs officers. The physical layout of the border itself can undermine efforts to move vehicles quickly, meaning that simply adding more personnel or tightening procedures may not be enough.

Technology presents another challenge at a facility where digital systems are expected to improve trade efficiency.

The AU assessment found that while customs authorities had made progress with electronic systems, information sharing between other border agencies remained incomplete. Some agencies continued to rely on verbal or email communication, limiting the extent to which Chirundu operates as an integrated border-management system.

The weakness is particularly important because the purpose of an OSBP is to reduce duplication.

If different agencies continue operating with separate systems and information channels, traders can still face multiple procedures even though they are technically operating within a one-stop facility.

Zambia has been trying to address this problem.

Namabanda Mubukwanu, Principal Economist in Zambia’s Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, said upgraded ICT infrastructure at Chirundu would “facilitate the integration of border agencies”, arguing that integration was necessary for “streamlining border operations, reducing delays and enhancing the overall efficiency of our trade logistics.”

The need for such intervention is reinforced by academic research.

University of Zambia researcher Angela Elsie Makoni, who examined freight-clearance systems at Chirundu, found that information technology was being used for information sharing, storage, processing and tracking, but concluded that “clearing is not done efficiently in real time as it takes various hours for freight transport to be cleared.”

Her research identified inadequate hardware and software, staff training gaps, power outages and inconsistent internet connectivity among the problems affecting electronic clearance.

The findings create a paradox for both countries that rely on the border post: they have a facility specifically designed to reduce delays, yet the systems supporting that facility can themselves become sources of delay.

The two governments are now also pursuing infrastructure improvements.

In Zimbabwe, Cabinet approved a US$66.8 million public-private partnership for the upgrading and modernisation of the Zimbabwean side of Chirundu. The proposed works include renovations, new buildings, weighbridges, roads, parking facilities and improvements to ICT and traffic-processing systems.

The World Customs Organization has previously undertaken a Time Release Study at Chirundu to measure how long goods actually take to move through the border. The exercise reflected the growing recognition that border performance has to be measured using actual clearance times rather than assumptions about efficiency.

The historical performance of Chirundu shows what is possible when such reforms work.

The UN’s earlier assessment demonstrated that reducing border delays could produce significant economic savings. But the later AU findings, including the increase to more than 51 hours in average crossing time on the Zimbabwean side, show that efficiency gains cannot simply be achieved once and then taken for granted.

The latest review therefore presents Zimbabwe and Zambia with an opportunity to address not only the administrative arrangements governing Chirundu, but also the infrastructure, technology and coordination gaps that threaten its original purpose as a genuine one-stop border post.