Southern Africa forwarding association gets a kick-start

Despite some serious challenges, the establishment of a Federation of Clearing and Forwarding Associations of Southern Africa (FCFASA) is firmly on the planning boards. This follows a workshop held earlier this year to give FCFASA a “kick-start” to become a successful regional association. Around 20 delegates from Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa as well as sponsors TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) met in Johannesburg to map the way forward. One of the immediate priorities is the establishment of an e-learning portal, which will include a regional training curriculum. The association will also look at developing a website and business plan. TMSA agreed to support FCFASA in the development of its business plan, but called for the national associations to show commitment by paying some subscriptions. A spokesman made it clear that all support would be outcomes-based, ie, FCFASA, would need to show that it could produce results in order to justify funding While FCFASA had previously agreed with its member associations that there would be an annual membership fee of US$500, this was not being paid. And to complicate matters, FCFASA did not have a bank account. In order to strengthen national associations, it was suggested that they come to an agreement with their ministries (customs) to ensure that no clearing agents could register with customs unless they were members of a national association. “This would strengthen the national associations and so enable them to support the regional body,” said executive director of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations, Barney Curtis.