NORTHERN CORRIDOR STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATIVE FORUM MEETS IN NAIROBI

A meeting of the Northern Corridor Stakeholders Consultative Forum was held on 7th May 2009 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya and was hosted by the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Mr. Michael Waweru, Commissioner General of Kenya Revenue Authority, who is also the Chairman of the Forum, opened the meeting. Participants included representatives of both the public and private sector agencies from the NCTTCA member states.

The meeting reviewed issues affecting economic operators from Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Sudan, using the Northern Corridor. A Committee set up to review security of Cargo and Traffic along the Northern Corridor presented its report to the meeting.

The meeting discussed the Draft Charter on the institutionalization of the Stakeholders’ Consultative Forum, but deferred final decision on it pending further consultations.

ICT systems in use on the Corridor were also reviewed. The meeting emphasized the need to interface the various systems in order to create synergies; with specific focus on the Kilindini Waterfront Terminal Operations Systems (KWATOS), the planned Port Community Based System, and KRA’s SIMBA 2005 customs system, vis-à-vis ASYCUDA used by the other Customs Administrations and Cargo Tracking Systems.

The meeting also focused on cross cutting issues, including: the regionalization of RADDEX by customs administrations; operations of the cargo freight stations (CFSs) at Mombasa, licensing of trucks for conveying inter-state and transit traffic; and performance bench-marking for the Northern Corridor Transport Observatory.