ECOWAS and UEMOA Visit the Northern Corridor

A delegation of 30 senior’s officials from ECOWAS and UEMOA undertake a study tour to Northern Corridor from 04th May to 07 May 2007. The trip was conceived as a training activity for the Chairman of West African National Facilitation Committees in the field of corridor management techniques and aims to draw lessons from East Africa experience in transit transport facilitation to be adapted to West Africa economic and institutional context.

The Study tour to Mombasa Northern Corridor by the ECOWAS National Facilitation committees is an activity implemented within the framework of the ECOWAS Regional Facilitation Programme funded by the European Union, which comprises two components:

The Institutional Support to the NCTTCA includes the following components:

• The establishment of joint border posts facilities,
• The establishment of a facilitation framework and network in charge of driving the facilitation process in the ECOWAS region, implemented by the consultant BCEOM

During the opening session of the tour, Jules Gogoua, Regional Facilitation Project Programme Officer, ECOWAS, , thanked the NCTTCA for providing the opportunity to share best practices with the National Facilitations Committee representatives from the ECOWAS region.

Independent external auditors shall be selected to provide project audit services.

Dr. Sadok Zerelli, BCEOM Project Team Leader, ECOWAS Transit Facilitation Unit, reviewed the context and objectives of the study tour. He highlighted that the study tour is in line with BCEOM methodology based on learning from the “success stories” and on ensuring a high ownership of the best experiences in Africa by the African facilitation stakeholders. He informed the participants that the activity will be followed by a seminar on the establishment of the Corridor Management Committees, and by another workshop in October, to establish the Regional Facilitation Committee.

Mr. Godfrey Onyango, Executive Secretary of the NCTTCA, welcomed the delegates to Mombasa, and presented the role of the NCTTCA in the facilitation process along the Northern Corridor as a watchdog and facilitator. He expressed his appreciation of this opportunity of mutual learning between two different regions and thanked ECOWAS, EU and BCEOM for given NCTTCA the opportunity to share its experience.

The programme of the study tour was established as follows:

• Sunday May 4th: arrival of the participants in Mombasa
• Monday May 5th and Tuesday May 6th: Plenary sessions with NCTTCA Secretariat and stakeholders
• Tuesday May 6th (afternoon): visit of the KIFWA Service centre and the port of Mombasa
• Wednesday May 7th (afternoon): transfer to Kisumu
• Thursday May 8th: visit of the Malaba joint border facilities, and return to Nairobi
• Friday May 9th: return of the participants to their respective countries.

In addition to this working programme, a cultural visit of Fort Jesus, build by the Portuguese in 1597, was organised in the morning of the Wednesday May 7th.

The Plenary sessions programme was divided into two parts: Presentations by the NCTTCA Secretariat, highlighting different aspects of the activities and programme of the Corridor Authority:

• Overview, by Godfrey M. Onyango, Executive Secretary
• Strategic Objectives and Performance indicators, Jean Kizito Kabanguka
• Facilitation issues, by Lisumbu Eliombo
• IT projects, by Mohamed Athman

The second part was dedicated to presentations from the stakeholders, both public and private:

• Kenya Revenue Authority, G. Muia, Deputy Commissioner Enforcement, Customs Services Department, KRA
• Kenya Ports Authority, by Mwanamaka Mabruki, Corporate Development Manager, KPA
• Kenya International Forwarding and Warehousing Association (KIFWA), by Peter Otieno, Chairman Mombasa Branch