The Federation of East Africa Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) held its Annual General Meeting on early this month after a six months delay due to COVID 19 pandemic.
The meeting was attended by FEAFFA board and representatives of National associations from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Rwanda and Burundi.
The meeting resolved to continue pushing for professionalization of the industry for regional economic growth.
“The Federation will continue engaging existing development partners for other possible areas of collaboration. The secretariat will also explore ways in which to work with new partners,” FEAFFA said in its annual report.
The meeting observed that a new partnership with the development partners and especially Trademark East Africa (TMEA) offers a unique opportunity for the organization to establish a self-sustainable model of running the EACFFPC program.
“The Federation will however continue pursuing self-sustainability by working with national associations and ensuring national associations and the industry derives more value from FEAFFA. Focus will also be on finalizing review of the new constitution after it was recalled by the last General assembly,” FEAFFA annual report said.
The meeting also resolved to continue enhancing its visibility of her efforts through mainstream and social media.
FEAFA will also continue with the implementation of the TMEA funded East African logistics skills enhancement program. Through the program, FEAFFA intends to among other things, update the East Africa Customs and Freight Forwarding Practicing Certificate (EACFFPC) curriculum and training materials, develop a strong warehousing module, enhance the e-learning portal, conduct training of trainers, introduce a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program and support advocacy for enactment of national self-regulation laws for the management of customs agents and freight forwarders in East Africa.
The Federation also resolved to continue engaging existing development partners for other areas of possible collaboration. The secretariat will also explore ways in which to work with new partners.
Uganda and Rwanda were selected to pilot the CPD program and are making preparations to start activities under the framework of the National Curriculum Implementation Committees (NCICs). Their experiences are expected to inform rollout of the program in other countries of the region.
A High Level Policy Meeting (HLPM) held in Tanzania on 20th February 2019 adopted and revised implementation framework for the EACFFPC- increasing to three the number of EACFFPC graduates in a firm as a requirement for licensing of customs agents and bonded warehouse operators. At least one of the three will be a manager, CEO or the director.
On the enactment of freight forwarding laws, FEAFFA has made significant gains. FEAFFA last month met representatives from the Ministry of Works and Transport in Kampala to explore ways of having the bill back on legislation track.
In partnership with the other industry players, a draft bill has already been developed and reviewed by the private sector stakeholders. The stakeholders validated the bill, and the next step was to engage with the government for a possible passage.
In September this year, Tanzania logisticians also held a stakeholder’s engagement on the proposed draft Tanzanian Customs Agents & Freight Forwarders Bill, 2020.
The aim of the meeting was to review the document further and get more inputs from stakeholders before engaging relevant government agencies. This is the 3rd draft so far. This meeting came after another successful one was held by the steering committee to generate consensus on key aspects of the draft document.
TMEA is supporting the enactment of national laws meant to govern the freight logistics industry in the republics of Uganda, Burundi and United republic of Tanzania.
Kenya and Rwanda have also made remarkable progress on the enactment of the law. Kenya has already concluded stakeholders’ validation meetings with key players in Nairobi and Mombasa who gave a nod to the draft law and is at an advanced stage of receiving views from the remaining few government agencies to have the bill being presented to parliament.
In Rwanda, which piloted the project, the proposed draft is currently being reviewed by the Rwanda governor’s board before it is taken to parliament. Burundi has a draft document, and the country is currently engaging stakeholders.
