The course is aimed at building the capacity of Rwandan freight forwarders so as to be on par with the rest of the East African members in handling clearing and forwarding issues.

Furthermore, the course will enhance smooth partnership with the RRA as most of their business is directly involved with the customs which is under RRA.

The curriculum of the course has been harmonized across the East African member states and has been translated into French so as to accommodate Rwandan and Burundian francophone counterparts.

It was put in place by the east African federation of freight forwarders association (EAFFFA) in conjunction with the East Africa revenue authorities (EARA) with the aim of harmonizing the course so that all the East African members can benefit the same way.

According to the chairman of ADR, John Bosco Rusagara, it will pre requisite in the future for all clearing and forwarding agents to be fully fledged agents with the certificate, with the exemption of members who have been in the profession for more than 15 years. “The course is imperative. Even those agencies that have been practicing will not be recognized without the certificate,” Mr. Rusagara said.

However, the association will avail enough time for all members to train where training is expected to be in phases giving each clearing and forwarding agency enough time to train at least two of its employees.

“We are hoping to have 500 to 600 candidates in the period of two years, thus giving every company a chance to train some of its employees,” Mr. Rusagara said.

He also highlighted the importance of the course for the association’s employees saying that it will enable them to fulfill their tasks completely as customs agents, entrench professionalism in the delivery of services provided by customs especially customs clearing facilitate trade and increase revenue collection.

Minimizing non-tariff barriers

Mr. Rusagara said that his main aim as the chairman of the association is to make sure that the members are trained to become number one in the region. He is optimistic that the training will enable agents to complete their duties professionally through minimizing non-tariff barriers such the delays in the servicing their clients.

The training will also improve ethical conduct, enhance good governance and integrity as well as discipline among members.

Even though there are still hurdles to be cleared in the freight forwarding business, the ADR chairman thinks they can be solved on the level of East African governments.

He pointed out delays in handling of documents by Kenya ports authorities, problematic reimbursement of deposits on containers, too many weighbridges on the Kenyan side (Mariakani, Mlolongwe and Gilgil), and unnecessary road blocks as well as border-crossing delays.

“We have come out openly to discuss such issues and we hope that a solution will be found. “The board of EAFFFA is scheduled to meet President Mwai Kibaki over the issue of non tariff barriers.

According to Lillian Rugambwa, in charge of the training program as well as the principle of the RRA training institute in Butare, the trainees are happy with the program. “They see that their counterparts in Kenya and Uganda are undergoing the same training and so they were enthusiastic to begin the training as well,” Ms. Rugambwa said.

She said that they had expected to begin with 100 students, and so far 90 students had registered. She pointed that the course will contribute to their credibility.
“We have always asked them to provide such certificates but we have been lenient due to the fact that they had not built their capacity,” she said.

First contact

Ms. Rugambwa pointed out that ADR members should be on the same level of understanding as their East African counterparts, and on top of that ADR also has to be an integral part of Customs.

The training will take six months on a part-time basis as all the students are only available during evening hours after work, when they have two-hour classes. “The training would have taken three months on a full time basis if the students could have been available,” Ms. Rugambwa said.

The Deputy Commissioner of RRA, Eugene Torero, pointed out the importance of the training as it will help members to understand more of customs procedures and thus ease their work.

“Almost three-quarters of what they have to learn is customs code, freight forwarding experience and of course soft skills such as customer care as well public relations,” Mr. Torero said.

He stressed that the first contact to the business community are the clearing and forwarding agents, before the customs, and so they have to explain the procedures that are required so as to save time and thus money. He further pointed out that consistence and predictability are very important in business and thus urged ADR members to do so.

He promised ADR full support in the training program, saying that RRA will cater for the training material and equipment and whatever they may require regarding training.

“ADR has been financing almost 99% of the cost of the project, and this implies that they have total ownership of the project a factor that shows that they are committed,” Mr. Torero said.