Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has refuted media reports suggesting that clearing agents based at Nakonde border post have been holding secret workshops to promote its trade facilitation instruments.
COMESA Secretariat public relations officer Mwangi Gakunga in a statement to Qfm news says the claims which were published by the Post Newspaper on 28 July 2015 alleged that “COMESA has been conducting secret workshops without engaging local clearing agents” on the implementation of the Regional Customs Transit Guarantee (RCTG) Scheme are not true.
Mr. Gakunga says the claims are in reference to a series of six workshops conducted a month ago targeting transporters, clearing agents and government agencies citing that the objective of the training was to prepare the key stakeholders involved in transit trade in Zambia with knowledge and skills to implement the COMESA Virtual Trading Facilitation System (CVTFS).
He explains that the training was triggered by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Zambia Revenue Authority and COMESA in May this year, for the implementation of the CVTFS stating that the CVTFS is a trade facilitation technology that provides a single electronic platform for processing various transit trade instruments including transit bonds, cargo tracking, overload control and insurance among others.
Mr. Gakunga says among those trained were Customs officers, ICT experts and border officials of the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA). Others were 24 transport companies operators, and 35 Clearing Agents drawn from Zambia border posts and from within Lusaka.
He further adds that In addition to training the users, the workshops also addressed inherent fears amongst Clearing Agents that the implementation of the systems especially the RCTG (if signed by the Government of Zambia) would render them jobless.