Maputo, June 4, 2025 (Lusa) - The presidents of Mozambique and Malawi will inaugurate on Friday, beside the province of Tete, the Dedza One-Stop Border Post, the first of four to facilitate bilateral trade, a project financed by the World Bank.
According to information released on Wednesday by the Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity Project (PCCAA), supported by the World Bank, this model "aims to strengthen connectivity, facilitate cross-border trade and promote sustainable economic growth" in southern Africa.
"With this innovative Single Stop Border model, border control processes in Mozambique and Malawi, namely migration, customs, health, and others, will now be carried out at a single point of entry and exit, promoting greater efficiency in the transit of people and goods between the two countries, with a reduction in time and logistical costs," the information states, adding that the inauguration of the Dedza One-Stop Border Post will be carried out by the heads of state of both countries, Daniel Chapo and Lazarus Chakwera.
Lusa reported in January that the two countries were implementing four Single Stop Border Posts to facilitate bilateral trade, with "efficient movement of goods, people and services," according to an agreement ratified by Mozambique's government.
According to the document approved by the Council of Ministers at the end of 2024, the governments of the two countries recognise the need for regional integration through the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the "principles of improving trade facilitation" in this region, establishing One-Stop Border Posts between both states.
The border between Mozambique and Malawi, which spans 1,569 kilometres, was established in November 1954 by an agreement between the respective colonial governments at the time.
Signed by the two governments on 23 November 2021, but only ratified by Mozambique more than three years later, the new agreement provides for One-Stop Border Posts, replacing the double control in each country at the borders of Mwanza and Zobué (Tete province), Dedza and Calómuè (Tete), Muloza and Milange (Zambézia), and Chiponde and Mandimba (Niassa).
With this single stop for border controls, the agreement assumes that these processes will be "faster and more effective" and will "reduce the number of interruptions in cross-border trade and other transactions, combining the control activities of each country in a single location in each direction."
The aim is to "extend the application of each party's national laws relating to border control in the other state, thereby allowing border control officers of each party to perform statutory functions outside their national territory," the agreement reads.
The agreement allows "the hosting of border control officers in each other's territory with the authority to perform border control functions using their own national laws".
The document also provides for the sharing of existing infrastructure and facilities, "thus enabling border control officers of each party to carry out border control functions" outside their territory, as well as "simplifying and harmonising documents and procedures" to enable "rapid processing".
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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