Clearing and forwarding agents have blamed Rwanda Customs for delays in the electronic single window clearance system, saying this has cost them clients.

This comes after a report released by TradeMark Africa that said that the system which was introduced in 2012 has reduced clearance time at the Customs from 11 days to 1 day and 10 hours.

The agents said that although the upgrade is appreciated some glitches exist which end up delaying the process.

Among the issues pointed out is the mode of operation, where RRA has two personnel who operate the system, one clears a container and the other exits it.

“We always experience a standstill when one of the RRA staff, either clearing or exiting is not available,” said Iyamuremye Patrick, who works with Safe services agency at Magerwa. He said when volumes increase, the available staff get overwhelmed taking longer to clear the goods, given the fact that there are still heavy physical checks involved in goods clearance.

Using the electronic interface, some agents clear goods even before reaching the country of destination, for instance those coming to Rwanda are cleared when still in Tanzania or Uganda, however this is only possible if it’s one type of product in a single container.

The majority of clients are small and medium size traders who normally merge funds and put multiple products in one container which slows down the process.

Rubangisoni Felix, from Adonai clearance agency said because the electronic single window works in the framework of the existing East African single window, it eases clearance for regional goods, but for goods from outside the bloc nothing has changed at all.

He, however, said the biggest challenge they face is that the server breaks down a lot.

The report shows that the Rwanda electronic single window significantly reduced the direct and indirect time required by clearing agents to obtain cargo documentation for both imports and exports.

Hannington Namara, the country director of TradeMark Africa, said just like any new system, some of these problems are expected.

Regarding the technical delays, he said the systems sometimes goes down or is slow because there are other agencies connected to it, which are part of the approval process.

“The system is connected to different portals of the various agencies which have to approve, sometimes these take long to approve hence the delays,” Mr Namara said.

Source: The East African

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.