At least 80,000 cross-border traders in Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo are set to benefit from a $79-million (about Rwf57 billion) World Bank funding support toward the Great Lakes trade facilitation.

Rwanda will get at least $26 milion (about Rwf19 billion) of the total grant that the World Bank Group’s board of executive directors in Washington DC, US, approved, on Friday, under its International Development Association (IDA).

According to a statement released from Washington DC, the fund will support the ‘Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project’ designed to reduce the cost faced by traders, the majority of whom are small-scale and women, in the surrounding borders of the three countries.

Makhtar Diop, World Bank Group vice-president for Africa, said the funding will help develop regional markets near border crossings and facilities to handle an increased flow of goods and people and strengthen government border agencies to efficiently deliver services.

"Regional approaches to trade facilitation are critical to leverage national efforts,” Diop said, adding that the three Great Lakes countries included in the project share similar challenges that need to be tackled through collective action.

The Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project follows a 2013 pledge by World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim after visiting Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to support peace, security and economic development in the region.

During the visit, Kim pledged $1 billion in additional funds to improve health, education, nutrition, job training and other essential services in DR Congo and the wider Great Lakes region.

In a joint statement issued shortly after the grant’s approval, Rwanda and DR Congo ministers of trade lauded the intervention as good news for their respective countries.

Francois Kanimba, the minister for trade and industry, said: "We welcome the prospect of our countries becoming a part of the tripartite free trade Area [for] Comesa-East Africa-SADC blocs and the development of the Great Lakes Trade Facilitation Project.”

Livelihood at border posts

Informal cross-border trade is a source of livelihood for hundreds of thousands of Rwandan traders, majority of whom women involved in border trading along the Eastern DR Congo-Rwanda borders.

According to World Bank, many communities in the DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda depend on key markets situated across the border and informal cross-border trade plays a major role in linking small producers to those markets.

It is estimated that border points such as Petite Barrière between Rwanda and DR Congo (Rubavu border), average daily crossings of 20,000 to 30,000 and that the new funding will remove barriers currently experienced by traders in order to help them reach potential buyers.

"We are pleased that our two countries have been trading with one another for a long time, which can help forge peace, stability, and security in the Great Lakes Region,” said Nefertiti Ngudianza Bayokisa Kisula, the Congolese minister for trade.

Rwanda World Bank country office yesterday said that the money will go toward improving core trade infrastructure and facilities to provide efficient and secure traffic flows of pedestrians, passengers, and commercial vehicles at border crossing points.

Trade analysts note that the financing will also improve security of small-scale traders, through separate lanes for pedestrians, lighting and cameras, as well as provide warehouses so traders can safely store their goods.

Anabel Gonzalez, the World Bank Group’s senior director for trade and competitiveness, said the new funding will help reduce the time it takes to move across borders and conduct business activities, thus allow traders to take multiple trips a day and increase their incomes.

"Today’s project will help support regional stability by improving livelihoods in border areas, facilitating cross-border trade and strengthening economic interdependence through connective infrastructure, policies and procedures,” Gonzalez said.

Other deliverables include infrastructure improvements at the border accompanied by better border management and governance as well as better trained officials.

The Indrawati visit

In May, World Bank managing director and chief operating officer Sri Mulyani Indrawati visited the Rubavu-Goma border post and spent hours speaking with small-scale traders, especially women, who shared their experience with her.

She later noted in an exclusive interview with The New Times at the end of her tour that there was a lot of potential in the women involved in cross-border trade to boost their livelihoods if only Rwanda and DR Congo increased cooperation to smoothen trade clearance.

Indrawati also reported that small-scale traders, especially women, were often victims of harassment and physical violence and were forced to pay bribes for small services at the border posts.

"Women are crucial to efforts of boosting trade and prosperity and their ability to do so safely is paramount,” Indrawati said in May.

The approval of the $79 million grant comes almost five months since Indrawati’s field visit.

The project to which the financing is targeted is expected to promote functional mechanisms to address complaints and resolve disputes as well as increase safety and reduce the scope of harassment that she witnessed at the border.