Major Projects in Rwanda

Mr. Murakami, Resident Representative of JICA Rwanda Office and Ms. Mary Baine, Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) at a signing ceremony for the Record of Discussion for the regional cooperation on customs administration in Kigali, Rwanda

In East Africa, customs administrations are not fully developed or followed. Lack of capacity of customs officers and agents associations, and their understanding of the customs administrations system, is a serious impediment to efficient and smooth trade facilitation. In close coordination with Revenue Authorities in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, as well as customs agent associations, this regional project aims at strengthening the capacity of both customs officers and customs agent associations to effectively and efficiently operate customs administrations and facilitate cross-border procedures on land. Technical assistance for this project includes:

Relevant authorities and stakeholders from the East Africa attended at a seminar on human resources development and training for customs administrations

• Baseline Study and Action Plan: Based on findings from the first phase, a baseline study is conducted to set specific targets for the second phase of the project. An action plan is developed to meet the targets.
• Capacity Building: To appropriately and effectively manage One Stop Border Posts (OSBP), capacity building for customs officers is continually conducted.
• Institutional Capacity Building: Strengthen the institutional capacity of customs administrations and management to share and enhance knowledge and provide advisory services.
• Improving Compliance: Strengthen customs monitoring and guidance for customs agents to improve their level of compliance.

This is also a follow up to the Yokohama Action Plan (YAP) (PDF) adopted at the Fourth Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD IV), where development assistance for border management was emphasized. In the YAP, Japan committed itself to expand One Stop Border Posts (OSBP) to a total of 14 points in Africa.