• Burundi
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  • Cross Border Trade

Information Guide

  • Existence of a toll-free number for your tax and customs information (500)

Facilities available at border posts

At the border, businesswomen can benefit from:

  • The management and customs clearance of their goods according to the competence of the border post or the customs office.
  • Assistance by customs agents if the goods exceed a customs value of 2000 USD. Otherwise, the use of these agents is not required.

Motivations for Trading Across Borders

  • Goods produced or grown in Burundi can circulate and be sold in all countries of the East African Community without paying Customs Duties, provided that the seller presents a Certificate of Origin issued by the authorized authorities in Burundi.
  • Often two regions are endowed with resources and opportunities in vastly unequal proportions while they are only at the fingertips of each other except that they are separated only by a geographical boundary. Cross-border trade is then the means of satisfying the needs of each other through exchanges.

Contact information

The Burundi Revenue Authority (OBR)
Port of Bujumbura,
PP 3465, Bujumbura-Burundi
(+257) 22 28 21 00

Cross Border Trade in Burundi

The Burundian Revenue Office of Burundi (OBR) was created in 2009 by Law No. 1/11 of July 14, 2009 .
Its creation is part of the Economic Integration Policy of Burundi within the East African Community (EAC), a Community which began with the operationalization of the Customs Union, followed by the Common Market of the Community. East African.
The overall goal of creating this institution was to reduce poverty through improved collection of public revenue as well as an improved business environment in Burundi.

The OBR is therefore a new institution created to usher in an era of modern and professional tax and customs administration in Burundi. Thus, the cross-border trade sector is regulated by this institution and it is mainly women who practice cross-border trade, both informal and formal.

Existing business opportunities

The growth sector for cross-border trade could be trade linked to agro-industry, given that trade mainly concerns food products with a low level or no processing at all.

Quality and export standards

The Burundi Bureau of Standardization and Quality Control (BBN) is responsible for quality inspection and standards.

Additional services useful to women entrepreneurs

A taxpayer service (Directorate of Communication and Taxpayer Service) and the official site of the Burundi Revenue Authority which is regularly updated with basic tax and customs information.

News

The quotWomen in Cross-Border Tradequot project, which was recently launched in Burundi, aims to improve the means of substance of women traders, managers or owners of businesses, through capacity building, the elimination of obstacles to trade and the promotion of the kind. This launch comes as Burundi prepares to launch another national project called 50 Million African Women Speak Out, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and implemented in 38 African countries.

The complementarity of these interventions brings enormous potentialities which should attract investments in order to reduce barriers to trade, to support the private sector in trade and to target vulnerable groups.

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