Cell phones help break through non-tariff barriers

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.