TradeMark East Africa To Fund FEAFFA With 3.5 Million US Dollars

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) has announced funding the Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) with USD3.5 million to support a four-year program that aims at enhancing skills for customs agents, freight forwarders and warehouse providers in East Africa.

The program implemented by FEAFFA across East Africa will offer timely training that is in tune with changing technologies and logistical needs, thus enabling customs agents and freight forwarders to provide competitive and high-quality end to end services.

The two institutions made the announcement as they signed a grant agreement at the ongoing Global Logistics Convention in Kigali.

Speaking at the event, Ms. Ithau said, “The high logistics costs in East Africa are driven not only by the high cost of inputs required for delivery of goods but also the inefficiencies and poor quality of logistics service delivery.”

On his part, Mr. Seka highlighted important components of the program saying, “One key component is the updating of the East Africa Customs and Freight Forwarding Practicing Certificate (EACFFPC) curriculum and training materials. A strong warehousing module will be introduced to address the skills gaps in this critical element of logistics. We have focused on enhancing FEAFFA’s online learning program as this will ensure that training is available and accessible in many parts of the region. With this funding, FEAFFA will introduce a higher – level qualification that will build on the success of the certificate program. The higher-level training program intends to expose practitioners to global practices and position them as global logisticians”.

A market study conducted by TradeMark East Africa in 2016 found that there was a lack of capacity building in the transport and logistics sector throughout the EAC region. The study established that clearing and forwarding agents had little access to changes in regulations and new technologies adopted by relevant government bodies; and this compelled shippers to understand the clearing process, an additional skill outside their core area of business. It also established there were limited formal training opportunities in warehousing, resulting in warehouse functionaries learning the basics on the job. Besides, the few existing logistics capacity building programs are provided in large cities; and this locks out operators at far-flung regional economic centers and at major border posts to access them.