IMPALILA – Home affairs minister Albert Kawana has urged his Zambian counterpart to expedite the implementation of the agreement that allows people from both nations the convenience of crossing the border using their ID cards.
His call signifies the need, seeing that Namibia and Botswana have already extended the usage of national identity cards for cross-border travel between the two countries at Buitepos, Ngoma, Impalila Island and Mohembo border posts.
As of 24 February 2023, Namibia and Botswana started accepting each other’s national identity cards for use in cross-border business and tourism travel for stays of up to 90 days. Nationals of each country can present this card to enter the other country without a passport. Kawana made the remarks while on Tuesday at Impalila Island during the inauguration of office and staff accommodation at Machenje crossing point between Namibia and Zambia.
“Namibia is ready to sign the agreement and implement what we implemented with Botswana,” Kawana said.
With the opening of Machenje immigration post, deputy prime minister John Mutorwa, who is also the works and transport minister, who attended the event, expressed hope that trade between Namibia and Zambia will increase, thereby creating much needed employment and economic growth.
“The opening of this border post should culminate in improved provision of services to our people and visitors alike. Our nationals will no longer need to travel long distances to access legal entry into and exit Namibia and Zambia,” Mutorwa said.
He warned that as countries implement border management practices, they need to create pathways for people that have relatives on each side of the border to continue interacting without experiencing challenges that were created by artificial colonial boundaries. The minister stressed the border post should not become a wall of impediment to communities and other visitors, but it must be a bridge of facilitating free movement of people and goods.
“Namibians and Zambians from this area have over the years been dependent on one another during good and bad times. When there is drought on either side of the border, sharing grain to fight hunger on the unaffected side becomes a practice,” Mutorwa noted.
With simplified border controls, Kawana feels countries can achieve more than just ensuring good neighbourly relations. Equally, he says they can also reap tangible economic benefits as the movement of goods and people will improve.
To enable this simplification, Namibia and Botswana aligned their systems and documents with the help of Veridos’ solutions. A QR code and a machine-readable zone were added to Namibia’s ID cards, while Botswana’s border control system was adapted to read these ID cards without any problems.
During 2023, Botswana and Namibia signed an agreement that allows their citizens to cross into the two countries without passports. Since then, citizens of the two southern African countries are only required to produce their identity cards at crossing points. -anakale@nepc.com.na