The Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) members are currently meeting in Kigali in two day retreat to address the challenges affecting the freight business.

Speaking to The New Times, the Federation’s chairman, John Bosco Rusagara, said that the retreat is mainly focusing on examining the achievements registered in the past years and exchange ideas on how to streamline their operations.

"This retreat will give us a great opportunity in assessing ourselves and give us the opportunity to tackle challenges that hold us back and table solutions; let them be government bureaucracies, Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs),” Rusagara said.

J.K. Mathenge, FEAFFA’s Regional Executive Officer, from Kenya shared some of the progress the organisation has made.

"We have managed to train over 1,000 members within the region on a professional course about the region’s customs freight forwarding practises,” Mathenge said.

Rusagara also said that FEAFFA members are creating awareness within the member states to easing the transit trade challenges and also facilitate trade within the region.

FEAFFA is a federation of national associations in the region that are engaged in freight logistics like customs agents, freight forwarders and transporters.

"It aims at promoting growth, development and cooperation of freight forwarding industry while advancing professionalism, ethics and integrity among the practitioners,”  Rusagara said.

FEAFFA, was registered in 2006 and is based in Tanzania. Its current members include, ABADT (Burundi), ADR (Rwanda), KIFWA (Kenya), TAFFA (Tanzania), UFFA (Uganda).

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