246 Clearing Freight Forwarders in Kigali attain East Africa Customs and Freight Forwarding Practising Certificate (EACFFFPC)
09th Sept. Kigali: Two hundred and forty-six (246) Clearing and freight forwarding professionals have today attained the East Africa Customs and Freight Forwarding Practising Certificate in a colourful graduation ceremony held in Kigali Rwanda. The professional course, offered under the apex freight body, Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Association (FEAFFA) in collaboration with East African Revenue […]
Supporting Rwanda farmers to reduce losses and access markets
For many farmer cooperatives across Rwanda, especially those that farm staple crops, access to finance has always been an issue and this is complicated by post-harvest losses that discourage finance providers from investing in agriculture. Positively, the government of Rwanda is undertaking improvement in infrastructure such as cold storage facilities, road and air transport to […]
Accessing Global Markets: Rwanda’s Game-plan in Getting Standards Right
How can Rwanda get more of its domestic products to international markets? A key element in achieving this goal requires applying rigorous requirements to food, animal and plant exports, known as Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures set by importing countries to address food safety, animal health and plant health risks that may be carried by […]
Roaring Cross-Border trade lifts thousands of women out of poverty in Rwanda
In Rwanda from the capital city of Kigali to the borders with Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda, cooperatives are building socially and economically resilient communities. TMA has interest in supporting women economic empowerment and this is being shown by its recent financial commitment to increase funding to women programmes. As well as its partnership […]
Can improved trade facilitation help tackle poverty?
Despite the benefits that trade facilitation initiatives such as the introduction of an eSW may yield for a wide range of stakeholders including clearing agents, importers and exporters and government agencies, like most trade reforms, the links between these types of investments and poverty reduction are not so clearly defined. A recent study (Shepherd, 2014) […]
Enhancing delivery of export adviser service – The Case of Export Advisers in Rwanda
1 BACKGROUND African countries are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of developing trade capacity in order to achieve effective participation in the regional and world trading system and to reap the full benefits of improved access to these markets (World Bank). There is wide recognition that capacity building and training are prerequisites to economic […]
“Growing for (and with) the Business” by Susan Mukankubana
I was appointed as the managing director of Top Freight before I ever worked in the freight forwarding business or received any training in this business. I had no knowledge of clearing and forwarding, I had just completed my bachelor’s in marketing. We had few clients. I did not know how to advise them well […]
Improving clearance time predictability: understanding the importance of standard deviation
Section 5.2 of the report provided a detailed analysis of the average release times of imports and exports for the 2010-2014 period. In addition, it identified the release times for the various stages; some of these changes can be attributed to the ReSW, others are the result of other reform measures identified in the report. […]
Lessons for strengthening the regional impact of the ReSW initiative
At the launch of the Kenyan Electronic Single Window in May 2014, President Uhuru called for the establishment of an EAC regional single window platform to integrate the national single window systems in partner states. Discussions on this initiative are ongoing as part of the EAC SCT operationalization, but currently only Kenya and Rwanda have […]
Complementing the ReSW: Establishing a comprehensive Rwanda Trade Portal
Establishing a Formal Trade Portal A Trade Portal is a web-based trade facilitation tool that provides reliable and up to date information on all laws, regulations and procedures for traders and government agencies involved in the import and export of goods. The tool complements the overall goal of the electronic single window since it reduces […]