On the Kidira bridge between Senegal and Mali, a truck can cross in an hour or sit for three days. The difference is almost never the road. It is the plastic folder on the dashboard, and what is in it.
This is the list we use for a shipment from Dakar to Mali, grouped by what it covers: the goods, the transit, the truck.
Documents for the goods
Commercial invoice. Describes the goods, quantity and price. It is the basis for customs value.
Packing list. Package by package: number, weight, contents. It must match the load exactly.
Bill of lading. For cargo arriving by sea, the title that releases it at the port.
Electronic cargo tracking note (BESC). Required by the Malian Shippers' Council for sea cargo bound for Mali. It is obtained at the port of loading, before the vessel sails. Forget it, and you discover the problem in Dakar, when it is too late to fix cleanly. For a foreign exporter, this is the document most often missed.
Malian requirements. According to Mali's trade portal: the importer's registration with the trade directorate, the import intention, an insurance certificate from a Malian insurer, import verification by BIVAC, for which the importer provides a certified cheque of 0.75 percent of the value, and a transit order giving the file to a licensed customs broker.
Product certificates. Certificate of origin if you claim preferential treatment, phytosanitary certificate for plant products, health certificate for animal products, specific authorisations for medicines or petroleum products.
For imports into Senegal itself, a prior import declaration has been compulsory since 1 May 2024 for goods with an FOB value of 500,000 CFA francs or more, and for every dedicated container whatever its value. It is filed online before arrival.
Documents for the transit
Cargo crossing Senegal to Mali moves under the ECOWAS inter state road transit regime created by the convention of 29 May 1982: a single customs document, duties suspended in the transit country, and a guarantee ensuring the goods do leave. The customs broker issues the document and provides the guarantee. It travels with the truck to the destination office.
Documents for the truck and driver
Vehicle registration, in the carrier's name or with the contract authorising it to operate the vehicle.
Vehicle insurance, including the ECOWAS brown card for driving outside Senegal.
Roadworthiness certificate, in date.
Driving licence in the right category.
Consignment note, which records the contract of carriage: shipper, consignee, nature and weight of goods, place of delivery. Without it, the contract is hard to prove and the driver hard to believe.
The mistakes that cost days
A description that changes from one document to the next. "Spare parts" on the invoice, "equipment" on the bill of lading, "sundries" on the packing list. For a customs officer, three descriptions mean an inspection.
A weight that does not match. Declared weight must be loaded weight. A gap draws attention at the weighbridge and at the customs office, and an overloaded truck is stopped.
A misspelled consignee. One letter off, and the destination office cannot find the file.
Copies where originals are required.
The document left for later. The BESC, the prior declaration, the import intention: whatever must exist before shipment cannot be fixed at the border.
The method that works
Gather every document before loading, not during. Check them against each other line by line: description, weight, number of packages, names. Give the driver a complete copy, and keep an identical set in the office so you can answer a call from the border in five minutes.
What we do
For every file, we check the documents for consistency before calling in a truck. An incomplete file does not leave: it is cheaper to wait for a paper in Dakar than at Kidira, with a truck idling and a driver to pay. And because every truck is tracked, we know it is waiting at the border before you call us.
Read next: your goods are waiting at a border post and shipping a container to Senegal or Mali from abroad.
Sources: Mali trade portal (importer registration, import intention, Malian insurance certificate, import verification programme and 0.75 percent certified cheque, transit order); Malian Shippers' Council (electronic cargo tracking note); Senegal Customs, prior import declaration generalised on 1 May 2024; ECOWAS Convention A/P4/82 on inter state road transit, 29 May 1982; OHADA Uniform Act on contracts for the carriage of goods by road, 2003 (consignment note).