Tanzanian truck drivers are
using cell phone technology
to break through non-tariff
barriers that have been slowing
trade in East Africa.
A trailblazing scheme
developed by the Tanzanian
business community allows
operators to report nontariff
barriers (NTBs) slowing
their freight by SMS message
and online.
“Of all the NTBs that
have been reported to
us, 42% – that’s nearly
half – have been resolved,”
says Shammi Elbariki,
NTB project coordinator at
the online system developed
by the Tanzanian Chambers
of Commerce, Industry
and Agriculture (TCCIA).
The Central Corridor
is a lifeline for Tanzania,
Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda,
the Democratic Republic of
Congo and countries south of
Tanzania such as Zambia and
Malawi.
Transport is estimated to
account for as much as 40%
of import costs in the region.
Every day a truck is on the road
costs US$400.
Under the
TCCIA scheme,
transport
operators,
freight forwarders
and clearing
agents are
trained on how
to report NTBs,
both online and
through SMS,
and these are
collated in the
project’s office
in central Dar
es Salaam and
forwarded to
the ministry or
agency concerned
for action.
The awardwinning
scheme, developed
with help from TradeMark
East Africa, has attracted
attention from the transport
industry across the region as
it struggles to overturn NTBs
inherited from the days before
the East African
Community
(EAC) project
was launched,
according to
TradeMark
East Africa
(TMEA).
“Uganda
has already
asked about
the technology
used so that
it can devise
a similar
scheme,
and there is
similar interest
across the EAC
because NTBs
are an EACwide
problem,”
Josaphat Kweka, TMEA
country director, Tanzania is
quoted as saying.
Cell phones help break through non-tariff barriers
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