Nairobi – December 06, 2012
Today, the Federation of East Africa Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA), represented by the President, Mathew Bizimana, has signed a Grant Agreement with TradeMark Africa ( TMA ), represented by Silas Kanamugire, the TradeMark Africa Director, Trade Facilitation/Transport.
“Federation of East Africa Freight Forwarders Associations is excited about this partnership with TradeMark Africa which is expected to develop strategies that will reduce the time and cost of transport in East Africa. TradeMark will be a key partner in establishing FEAFFA as a one-stop information centre for transport, logistics and trade information”, said Mathew Bizimana.
The East African region is currently characterized by high logistics costs and low levels of service provision. Logistics costs currently account for about 42% of the total cost of importing, while costs associated with delays represent about 23% of the total import process cost. To address this, TradeMark Africa is providing financial support to Federation of East Africa Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) to address this challenge through training.
In collaboration with Eastern Revenue Authorities (EARA), FEAFFA has developed a training Programme customs agents and freight forwarders, East African Customs Freight Forwarding Practicing (EACFFPC). Further, the Federation has also designed and adopted a code of conduct for Customs agents/freight forwarders customize to the national relevance.
The EACFFPC is jointly implemented by FEAFFA and East African revenue authorities. It aims at training East African cargo agents to the desired level based on a common regional curriculum, training materials and quality assurance system. This programme is expected to contribute in reducing delays of cargo clearance/transit, which is consistent with TradeMark Africa’s objective ‘’to reduce transport and related costs along the key corridors in East Africa’’. Recent research by TradeMark Africa has documented that trained customs agents make less errors in lodging customs entries and therefore are able to clear cargo faster.
Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA)
The Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) is an apex body of freight forwarders’ associations in the Eastern Africa region formed in 2005. It is registered and domiciled in the United Republic of Tanzania in 2006 but its Secretariat is situated in Nairobi, Kenya. The five countries currently represented in FEAFFA have over two thousand clearing and forwarding firms. By 2011, the operators were distributed among the member countries as follows Burundi had 75, Kenya – 1500, Rwanda – 108, Tanzania – 642 and Uganda –80. FEAFFA’s core mandate is professionalizing the freight logistics industry in the region as well as ensuring that the interests of the freight forwarders in the East African states are taken care of to ultimately reduce freight logistics costs in the region and make East Africa more competitive.
The Federation plans to bring more countries on Board especially those that use the regional corridors such Southern Sudan, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo among others. The Secretariat of FEAFFA situated in Nairobi, Kenya.
FEAFFA’s vision is “to be the model professional Association and authority in freight logistics”. On the other hand its mission is to promote a strong ethical and professional freight forwarding industry which supports trade facilitation and regional economic growth.
FEAFFA has been and remains involved in initiatives aimed at promoting professionalism in the freight logistics industry in East Africa. The most outstanding initiative in this area is the EACFFPC training program that stated in 2007 with support from USAID until TradeMark Africa got on board. This is a basic course intended to equip clearing agents with knowledge and skills desirable in customs and freight forwarding. TradeMark Africa has committed in excess of 1million USD to this program by end of 2013. Together with TradeMark Africa, FEAFFA developed an e regulation portal aimed at providing trade information to the agents with ease. Negotiations for an advocacy program are in advanced stages.
For more information, please visit the KSC website at www.kenyashippers.org
Find out more about Trademark East Africa.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
To arrange for interviews please contact :
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Silas Kanamugire
Director, Trade Facilitation/Transport
Tel: +254 (0) 734 824 052
Email: silas.kanamugire@trademarkea.com
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Mr. John Mathenge
Chief Executive, FEAFFA
Tel: +254 20 2684802, +254 738150395
Email: mathenge@feaffa.com, info@feaffa.com
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Source: TradeMark Africa(TMA)
TradeMark Africa (TMA) is an aid-for-trade organisation that was established with the aim of growing prosperity in East Africa through increased trade. TradeMark Africa (TMA) operates on a not-for-profit basis and is funded by the development agencies of the following countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, UK, and USA. TradeMark Africa (TMA) works closely with East African Community (EAC) institutions, national governments, the private sector and civil society organisations.
