Zambia’s border with Tanzania in Muchinga Province has been described as very porous with limited to no barriers or security arrangements leading to rampant smuggling activities and loss of revenue by authorities such as Zambia Revenue Authority – ZRA.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Cross Border Traders Association Nakonde branch members have disclosed that smuggling is rampant because of the porousness of the border.
CBTA Nakonde branch vice chairperson Michael Kanyanya said the stretch from Nakonde border to the next border which is Kasesha border near Mbala in Northern Province was too long and was not guarded, hence the increase in smuggling.
“The smuggling at Nakonde border is rampant because the border is porous, the stretch which is not guarded is too long. It’s the stretch from Nakonde up to Mbala connecting to the other border Kasesha. The stretch from Nakonde on the right is very porous,” he said.
Kanyanya said there was need to intensify sensitization of the traders on the need and importance of trading formally . He said stakeholders such as the Zambia Army, Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and the Immigration department should come together to fight this scurge.
Kanyanya noted that smuggling was not good for both the country and the traders as it leads to loss of revenue and promotes criminal activities. He said there is urgent need to curb smuggling as it deprives the traders of free competition with those who has paid taxes.
“There is need for stakeholders like ZRA, the immigration and us the association to come together and try to find ways of curbing this, we need to intensify sensitisation on this matter.
“As we may all be aware, a country achieves better economic growth by developing its own industrial base. Smuggling under-cuts prices of the locally manufactured goods thus destroying the market for local products and robs the nation of her revenue, hence affects provision of social services to entire community,” Kanyanya explained.
He said, “Traders should know that when you use formalized routes, you are sure of what you are doing, then theft is minimized, because when you use illegal routes you meet people that can steal or get all of your capital but when you use legal routes you are guided on how best you can trade and intimidation is minimized.
Kanyanya further appealed to Goernment to help the association with grants or loans to boost their business of lending out money to small scale cross border traders.
“We have 800 members , those that have renewed their membership are 137. Our members need good capital to facilitate their businesses, the little capital that they have can not facilitate them to grow faster.
“We would like to urge government to provide grants or loans to help the traders to grow. What we are doing as an association is that out of the small business that we do, we buy maize resell maize to FRA then use the money to give small loans to our members. For example, three months ago we were giving K600 to our small scale traders as an association then they pay back K650. So if we are given a grant as an association we can boom it from there and be able to empower our traders,” Kanyanya said.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down business for most traders as there are usually restrictions for crossing the border.
“The business is very slow because of the closure of the borders, there was lockdown, people could not trade as normally as they used to. A few weeks ago there were restrictions that people can not cross. What we are doing as an association we are sensitizing our people to follow the five golden rules then we are also encouraging them to vaccinate. When they do these they are allowed to cross but of course with a lot of intimidation within ourselves. A lot of money has been lost. Almost half of people’s capital,” Kanyanya said.
