Improved Transport since AEAC incorporation!

Rwanda has made significant achievements in developing transport Infrastructure in recent years. It is not possible to ensure country to country mobility and goods transport, without development of the integrated transport service. The East African community in corporation with decided to constitute a technological committee and one custom service to assess the existing cross country transport problems and assure reduction in transport.
Checking papers is done to every boarder but drivers have the unique paper which is taken from their packing side. “We use one boarder for stamp and signature and on the other customs it’s only verification!” says VUNABANDI Saidi, one of the Rwandan Drivers and a traveler through the East African region.
From the very outset, before the EAC integration, transport had a very hindrance as transporters of goods from one country to another spent a lot of days in roads. On each and every boarder truck drivers had to struggle for paying visa and they had to spend a lot in roads.
The private sector and civil society are key partners in the integration agenda, therefore Trade Mark has been supporting the private sector and civil society organizations in areas related to research, advocacy, communication and capacity building of their members so that they are able to engage with counterparts in the region in an effective manner.
What was wrong with the previous ability? The problem was unity. Now we have become a community! Working globally has a very good income because when strength is put together people gain more. It’s the same in transport whereby transporters in our region now cross the customs freely at whatever time they move.
HAKIZIMANA Hassan, Rwandan Transporter, also insists that they are now in a free environment even if they take a delay on their stations some times. “As an added advantage, we, drivers and our helpers, get benefited from payments on our visa and transit that were reduced, even peoples at the boarders work 24 hours nonstop.”
All of these resolutions came from Trade Mark East Africa. This company is supporting other EAC partner states in the following areas:
• Reduction in transport and related costs along the key corridors in East Africa especially supporting the government of Kenya and Tanzania to improve the port efficiencies;
• EAC institutions such as Ministries in charge of EAC affairs to develop a comprehensive framework for regional integration;
• Support partner states to substantially increase the implementation of a comprehensive framework for regional integration;
• Support to private sector and civil society to positively influence regional Integration policies and practices for growth in trade.
Among transporters, there are some of them who complain on how they are still being stopped by police for a long time while they don’t explain reason to them. For Yassin Abdi Hassan, the Tanzanian Transporter, the improvement is obvious but there is a long journey to cover:
“Sometimes we are stopped by police and delay about 6 hours for no reason and let us go when they want. Indeed weighing machines like in Uganda mislead us, as we transport fuel you pass on the first one and it marks ok; the second it’s the same. But when you get to the third they tell you that you have exceeded!” he says.
How can this happen?
The Rwandan Office Director for Trade Mark, Mark Priestly previously stated that the Company is doing research about any problem encountered in travelling, and then develop advocacy strategies to help Rwandan private sector position itself better to take advantages of opportunities and militate against some of the risks of integration.
Fortunately transporters appreciate mostly how they no longer delay on customs, they get facilities in their visa payments the can work whenever they want to. But the delay can be caused by the time difference which is attributed to many factors including poor infrastructure, the existence of Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and poor conditions of the trucks on the road. One would say that the poor state of infrastructure along the corridors is the main reason for the slow speed of the cargo trucks that cover EAC region.
Non-tariff barriers to trade (NTBs) are trade barriers that restrict imports but are not in the usual form of a tariff. For the case of Rwanda what is taken to be Non Tariff Barriers are those police who still stop travelling cargo Trucks for a long time while they should be keeping time as time is money. Here there is no one to blame! Police also is doing their job even if you can’t determine the core of taking so long.
The main complaint about transporters in our country is based on the onboard weighing systems that they think they are not sent by governments while they pay for them except in Rwanda. For the Rwandan and EAC’s Development to emerge, transport as one support of communication should go on being global and work with the decrease of travelling costs throughout Trade Mark, heir Ambassador is the region.