The ongoing construction works of Gatuna One Stop Border Post facilities in Gicumbi district between Rwanda and Uganda will be completed at the end of 2016.The Gatuna OSBP facility will be the fifth in the country after the already completed one-stop border posts of Rusumo, Ruhwa, Nemba and Kagitumba.

OSBP facilities, introduced under the auspices of the East African Community, ease movement by bringing all border control services of two neighbouring countries under one roof, whether entering or exiting a country.

 The new OSBP facility will speed up and improve services delivered at the border. The one stop Border Post will reduce non-tariff barriers and times spent at the border as well as improve transparency in terms of service delivery.

At the existing Gatuna border, passengers and Lorries crossing to each of the two countries are checked twice, one of the causes of spending much time at the border. The challenge will be solved because after the completion of the OSBP,the staff of both countries will be operating in one office and the clearance process will be done once the fact he affirm that will ease trade and social cooperation between Rwanda and Uganda.

To scale up service delivery at the border an X-Ray Scanner is being upgraded with high standard technologies which will enable it to scan two vehicles at ago. This facility scans a lorry without taking out goods. “The scanner will be able to scan two vehicles at once in a period of 5 minutes, currently the process takes much time as all good containing a vehicle have to be taken out and checked separately.

The entire project of Gatuna OSBP construction incorporate the expansion of the road linking two countries border offices , the upgrade of border scanner , the construction of a verification storage, a control shed, a parking yard and office buildings. The project is currently funded by the GoR at an amount of 5, 679, 48 Million US Dollars.

The construction works of Gatuna OSBP were flagged off at the end of last year and is expected to be operational by end 2016.