Transport and logistics: Immersion on the Ouaga-Lomé corridor

Ouagadougou: The Burkinabè Shippers' Council (CBC) wants to make itself better known to the public, in particular with regard to its efforts deployed all along the service corridors of Burkina Faso as well as in the various transit ports in the sub-region.In this dynamic, he invited media people to an immersion trip with the aim of allowing them to see first-hand his actions carried out in the field of transport to serve the country. 'This press trip aims to introduce media men and women to the actions of the CBC through its service offerings, its territorial coverage along the service corridors and the partners cooperating with it in transit ports,' explained , the head of the CBC communications department, Judicaël Sawadogo.It was the Ouagadougou-Lomé corridor in Togo that was chosen for this outing with the journalists and the Juxtaposed Control Post (PCJ) of Cinkanssé was the first stopping point. The PCJ, it was recalled, was set up by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and managed by the Scanning Système company.Its objective is to facilitate control services for the completion of formalities relating to the transit of goods. There, the journalists were able to immerse themselves in the CBC office in its missions and appreciate the existing collaboration between it and its partners which are the road carriers, the National Police services, the Customs, the Chamber of Commerce and industry of Burkina (CCI-BF) as well as the carriers' roofs.'Here we control the documents which we call Transport Tracking Document (DST). And, when trucks arrive without this transport document, we regularize them at our level,' said the head of the CBC office in Cinkanssé, Amadou Geoffroy Ouédraogo.The CBC, legal representative of shippersThis check, he detailed, must bring out all the information relating to the cargo, the nature of the goods, the registration of the truck, the driver's driving license and the loading slip from the port.'The CBC is the legal representative of shippers at the port and plays the role of interface between shippers and the government,' underlined Mr. Ouédraogo. And, to add that the speed in processing files (around a hundred per day) is linked to the good collaboration between the CBC service and its partners in the PCJ. For him, one of the main partners of his structure is Customs, considered a major player in transit to the PCJ. All this is attested by his head of post, Adama Ulrich Ouédraogo.From its point of view, the CBC, through its platform called Electronic Cargo Tracking Slip (BESC), facilitates Customs actions for information concerning the values ??of goods and freight. 'We have no means of verifying its values. We therefore enter the site to check if the declared invoices are the real ones. And, if this is not the case, we enhance them to make them profitable.The CBC is therefore our privileged partner,' he noted. The PCJ, underlined, the head of the Customs post, is the main gateway to Burkina Faso, in terms of freight, but also for countries like Niger, Mali, Chad and Guinea, Sierra Leone , etc.More than 600 vehicles per dayHe said that more than 600 vehicles pass through the post per day. And faced with the flow of transporters which has increased considerably, due to the closure of the Nadiagou checkpoint, on the Beninese border, and the bickering between Niger and Benin, numerous challenges have arisen at the PCJ of Cinkanssé .Among the challenges to be met, Adama Ulrich Ouédraogo cited the expansion of the parking lot and the improvement of the internet connection. For the representative of the Union of Truck Drivers of Burkina (UCRB), Jean Kiema, the CBC plays a considerable role in the conduct of their activities. However, he urged the competent authorities to find a parking lot large enough to relieve truck drivers, given the narrowness of the station space. 'We want this problem to be resolved as quickly as possible for the good of truck drivers,' he said.Source : Burkina Information Agency