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.