DAYS are numbered for rogue clearing and forwarding agents who have masqueraded at the country’s main entry ports as genuine professionals handling customers’ cargo.

Later this month, President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to launch a Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Association (FEAFFA) professional training and certification ceremony.

According to FEAFFA Vice Chairman, Stephen Ngatunga and Executive Director, John Mathenge, President Kikwete will launch a campaign to professionally train C&F agents in the region which in future may be a pre-requisite before getting licensed.

Messrs Ngatunga and Mathenge said for the past two years, FEAFFA has trained some 4,500 C&F practitioners who have qualified for the awarding of East African Freight Forwarders Practitioner’s Certificate in the region.

In Tanzania alone, over 1,300 practitioners have undergone the training which was initiated in 2012 thanks to funding from Trade Mark East Africa. Among other key goals for the professional training programme which will continue until such time that all C&F agents get the requisite skills, is to improve quality of services being rendered.

It is very clear that in Tanzania, the family of C&F has a good number of unwanted elements who have at times, colluded with port and revenue officials to steal clients goods or cheat on taxes.

Former Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association President, Otieno Igongo worked hard to ensure that the local C&F discipline is composed of professional personnel of good standing.

Mr Igogo who handed over the TAFFA presidency to Ngatunga over two years ago, is credited with organizing a once disorganized C&F family with a good number of rogue elements to what it is today.

It is commendable that Ngatunga and his fellow leaders at TAFFA and FEAFFA are carrying on with the good work aimed at weeding out unwanted elements in the C&F industry by making sure that all personnel get some basic professional training.

Professionally qualified personnel will observe ethics, respect clients and avoid engaging in illegal activities which may lead to loss of clients’ property and government revenue.

Bearing in mind that customs accounts for over 50 per cent of revenue collected by Tanzania Revenue Authority annually, a well behaved and professional C&F family is an important infrastructure.

Professional conduct of C&F agents will help lower cargo clearance and handling costs leading to reduction of prices of goods to the final consumer and efficiency at main ports of entry such as Dar es Salaam port.

Dar es Salaam port which is the country’s prime port handling over 90 per cent of the country’s imports and exports, also serves six landlocked countries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.

In the past five years, some clients from these landlocked countries decided to stop using Dar es Salaam port in exporting and importing their merchandise because of unprofessional behaviour of C&F agents which led to loss of property, delays in cargo clearance and high costs of services due to storage charges.

Efforts to weed out crooked elements at the country’s prime port which targeted senior management at Tanzania Ports Authority by Transport Minister, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, have almost restored customer confidence in the past two years or so.

Dr Mwakyembe’s actions have also not only purged crooked elements at Dar port but also at Julius Nyerere International Airport where apart from being a major transit point for narcotics, also allowed dishonest travellers passing through contrabands after bribing airport security authorities.

It’s such crooked and corrupt elements which FEAFFA’s professional training programme will seek to identify and stamp out from the C&F family which is the life blood of this country’s economy and security.

Dar es Salaam port and Julius Nyerere International Airport are very important economic and security infrastructure to be left in the hands of rogue C&F agents whose main interest is to make money and whatever cost.

FEAFFA needs utmost stakeholders support to get every practitioner obtain an East African Freight Forwarders Practitioner’s Certificate so that the future of the industry in the region is improved for the better.

Source:: All Africa

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.