The construction of one stop border post at Taveta in Kenya and Holili in Tanzania has started, Trade Mark East Africa, the organization undertaking the projects across East African community member states said yesterday.

The construction is among two others including the Busia Kenya and Uganda and Mutukula border crossing between Tanzania and Uganda, which TMEA said will be complete by the end of next year.

TMEA is investing around $75 million (Sh6.3 million) in seven one stop border posts across the region. Along the Northern Corridor, TMEA is providing financing for the Busia-Busia between Kenya and Uganda, and Kagitumba-Mirama Hills between Rwanda and Uganda.

The company is also financing the construction of the Kobero and Kabanga border point between Burundi and Tanzania, Tunduma border crossing between Tanzania and Zambia as well as Elegu and Nimule border points between Uganda and South Sudan.

The designs works for most of the proposed offices have already been concluded before actual pre-construction processes commence. TMEA said the missing link now is lack of investments in Integrated Border Management systems by most of the agencies that are expected to utilise the services under the one stop border operations.

The IBM creates seamless clearing processes for users across the integrated border points without the need for physical documentation.

The system is expected to eliminate bottlenecks, fast track clearance and cut out corruption through out the process involved in cross border operations across the interconnected countries.

Transport costs in East Africa have been identified by various studies as the highest in the world, accounting for about 40 percent of the consumer prices.

"Most National Revenue Authorities have made considerable progress to modernise their approach on the application of border controls including the introduction of information technology to increase the effectiveness of control procedures at border post," said a statement from TMEA.