At least 246 customs professionals have received the East Africa Customs and Freight Forwarding Practicing Certificate (EACFFPC).
The six- month training was offered by Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) in partnership with the Rwanda Freight Forwarders Association, to provide trainees with vast experience in the freight forwarding or customs clearance sector.
The clearing and forwarding sector plays a very critical role in facilitating international trade and is therefore an agent of economic development.
The program equips the practitioner with improved technical skills and professional ethics in line with emerging trends in the industry dynamics.
Geoffrey Agaba, a graduate, said that the EACFFPC training equipped them with ample customs skills on clearing and forwarding.
"The six-month certificate gives us regional knowledge; it helps us in our daily work of importation and exportation. And also, in licensing, all the custom professionals have to pass through this program,” he said.
He said that this certificate is an important document in his daily work since there are areas one can’t access in work without this certificate.
David M Rwigema, the Chair of Rwanda Freight Forwarders Association, said that this profession requires unique skills, and that is why it is important to have such training for people to work professionally when they are well equipped with understanding.
"We are giving this training on a regional level to ensure that the people who work in this field know exactly what they are doing,” he said.
Rwigema said that this training was designed for people who work on customs to deliver the best and make sure that every export and import is done legally.
He said that there is another training that the graduates have to go through to level up in terms of skills and professionalism, to keep up with the trends in the industry.
Theophile Uwiringiyimana, another graduate and best performer, said there are going to be changes in his daily work since he has gained more skills when it comes to the entire process of the cross border trade.
"I didn’t know how to calculate taxes about the imports and exports, or how to clear the different products. But now I have skills on regulations and my knowledge has increased on cross border trade,” he said.
"Freight forwarding and customs clearance is a unique profession with international trade laws and with over ten thousand tariffs, so people need regular training,” said Felicien Mwumvaneza, the Commissioner for Customs at RRA.
Mwumvaneza said that the training facilitates professionals and prevents malpractices in the industry, and that Rwanda being in different regional integration bodies, there are always new agreements on how products pass through customs.
Providing such training is a continuous activity for the professionals, he added, noting that no one is allowed to get a certificate of working as customs agent without getting training.
"We remind the graduates to supplement the RRA by fairly charging taxes so as to raise the revenue of the country, hence developing public services,” he said.