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An official with the Regional Immigration for the Southern Region has revealed Zimbabwe’s E-Gates are facilitating faster more secure travel for new Biometric Passport holders.
The official was televised on South African television channels this week highlighting the progress made in the modernization initiative.
By Ross Moyo
“We have started with a test run effective 14 January, and we are impressed so far with the effectiveness of these eGates,” the official. “This is part of the ease of doing business initiative, and we have also upgraded the Online Border Management System (OBMS) to complement the eGates.”
OBMS was designed to capture travelers’ biometric data, identify flagged individuals, and automatically allocate stay durations such as 30 days for holidaymakers, seven days for business visitors, and three days for transit travelers.
eGates introduction and the upgraded immigration system is a leap and bound step in digitizing border services.
The Regional Immigration Officer for Southern Region enunciated that the new systems reduce the inefficiencies associated with manual processes, streamlining the movement of people and goods through Zimbabwe’s busiest ports of entry.
Such modernization comes as part of a 17-and-a-half-year public-private partnership between the Government and the Zimborders Consortium, which has upgraded and automated the Beitbridge Border Post. The facility can now process 60% of commercial cargo within three hours and drastically reduce wait times for ordinary travelers to less than 30 minutes, provided they have the necessary documents.
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