Border checks tighten on mineral transit

Even so, at Busia and Malaba, mineral consignments are now being matched against licence and export records before they cross. Trucks that used to pass in an hour are sometimes sitting for a day, and the traders are not happy.

01Why it is being done

Uganda's declared mineral exports have never sat comfortably beside what neighbours declare as imports from Uganda. Checking the paper at the gate is the crude way to find where the gap is coming from.

02The cost of the delay

So, legitimate exporters carry the cost of the queue while the ones with no papers simply use the bush routes. Enforcement at the post only works if the routes around the post are also watched.

03Our reading

Tighter checks are welcome, but the ministry should publish the reconciliation figures. Without numbers in public, the exercise looks like inconvenience rather than reform. Time will show whether the paper becomes work.