Clearing And Forwarding Agencies Ready for EAC

ADR (  ..More Focus Media (Kigali)

18 July 2008

Posted to the web 21 July 2008

Clearing And Forwarding Agencies Ready for EAC

ADR (Association des Agences en Douane du Rwanda-Rwanda Customs Agencies Association) is an umbrella association for clearing and forwarding agencies in Rwanda. Its role is to facilitate the business community in dealing with the paper work of the clients which ensures that the business community meets its obligation of paying taxes.

Anita Bitega, the executive secretary of ADR, says the association has been working on building the capacity of its members, especially on professionalism, with training and field studies a being conducted so that the trainees can be able to learn on and off the field experiences.

"We are working to professionalize our members so that they may have sufficient knowledge as regards the kind of work they are involved in," Ms Anita Bitega says.

Now that Rwanda is a member of the East African Community (EAC), the association is looking beyond Rwandan borders to look for a wider market. The association sees this opportunity as the reason to work even harder, as they expect to be competing with regional giants in clearing and forwarding agencies with vast experience.

"Its imperative that we act quick, otherwise we might end up getting swallowed by the bigger fish," Ms. Bitega argues.

As the mediator between the customs and the business community, ADR is always in contact with Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and the relationship between the two has improved over the time.

"Our relationship has tremendously improved and not like in the past years where they were bossing us around. Currently they regard us as partners where we can sit at the same table and talk about the way forward in our relationship," Ms Bitega says. The improvement in the relationship is underlined by the fact that both RRA and ADR partnered in setting up a joint training program.

According to the training program coordinator at ADR, Pierrette M. Kagame, the training was an ADR initiative, but she also lauded RRA contributions on the training by providing trainers.

ADR also received a harmonized curriculum which was prepared by freight forwarders experts as well as the East African revenue authority.

Since the curriculum was in English, it had to be translated for Rwanda and Burundi had to be at the same level as the rest of the East African countries.

"We invited our Burundi counterparts to join us in the training so that we may be on the same page," Ms. Kagame says, adding that the French version of the curriculum was launched in Bujumbura last week.

Able to survive

ADR is optimistic that it will be innovative and competitive enough to be able to survive in the EAC market.

"We have come a long way, so we are ready to compete on the wider market," Ms. Bitega points out, which she says is ADR took the initiative to rigorously upgrade of the skills and capacity of its members. "We are encouraging our members to form mergers so that we can have strong clearing and forwarding agencies that can handle the competition and the demand that results from the already widened market."

According to General Eugene Torero, the deputy commissioner of RRA, his institution has raised awareness among ADR members about joining the EAC, because of the importance and the benefits of Rwanda's joining the East African community.

As for the training program that ADR will to begin next week, RRA did not leave behind. It has provided four of its officers to work with ADR on the curriculum.

"Equipped with the best skills, ADR can be good partners," Mr. Torero says, adding that RRA wants ADR to be on the same level with the rest of East African clearing and forwarding agencies. "When they have the required capacity, they will help RRA and its customs work," Mr. Torero says,

He also points out that since customs agencies are the first contact with the business community, they should be equipped with the right information so as to be able to correctly advise entrepreneurs. "We expect the training to take them to the next level, which will facilitate them to be more competitive in EAC," he says.

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Unqualified clearing agents given ultimatum

KICUKIRO - Agents who are practicing without certified documents in   ..More Newtimes

Unqualified clearing agents given ultimatum

KICUKIRO - Agents who are practicing without certified documents in the field of Clearing and Forwarding will not be allowed to operate by 2010, the Deputy Commissioner General of RRA Eugene Torero has said.

Torero said this on Tuesday during the official launch of the training program for the attainment of the Eastern Africa Customs Freight Forwarding Practicing Certificate(EACFFPC), at Le Prestige Hotel in Kigali.

The training was organized to facilitate the import-export trade by providing a body of professional freight forwarding agencies within Rwanda committed to meeting every client’s needs.

“It is very important to have qualified clearing agents and now that we are providing the training, it will require a certificate for anyone to operate in the field of customs clearing and forwarding by 2010,” Torero said.

He was also confident that after training the agents, the result would be an unrivalled quality of service within the region and beyond.

“Harmonizing training programs like this one is very important because the procedure during customs is the same and we should endeavor to do it perfectly like it is done elsewhere in the region,” he added.

The person in charge of the training program/head principal of RRA Training Institute, Lillian Rugambwa, says that it is very necessary for these agents to attain professional training and that they will be able to achieve this because of the way the curriculum has been translated.

“We have translated the curriculum into French for those who do not understand English,” Rugambwa said.

While giving his speech, the Vice President of the East Africa Freight Forwarders Association, Bosco Rusagara, said that this is the first professionally recognized training program for clearing agents in the region.

“It is the first in the region and it will equip trainees with necessary skills, competences and values that are desirable in customs clearing and freight forwarding,” he said.

He added that acquiring professional forwarders is important because Rwanda faces many challenges as a landlocked country with no access to seaport and is a country with a smaller industrial base in comparison to the larger EAC states.

“It is important that when importers have completed the long journey from the seaport they should find a friendly and professional pool of custom agents providing world-class management service,” Rusagara said.

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