Commissioner for Customs services, Rosine Uwamariya sensitized transporters to join the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) during a meeting she chaired today in Kigali. As Rwanda faces challenges of being far from the ocean, limited access to air transport, almost 99% of all goods coming to and/or from Rwanda are transported through inland transport. Uwamariya said RRA is very thankful transporters’ cooperation in management of supply chain and in addressing logistical problems and is committed to facilitate them to become competitive in the region by giving their trucks priority clearance at entry and exit points upon becoming an AEO. This will reduce transit time; help transporters to make more trips and thus increasing your turnover. To be granted an AEO status requires compliance with any laws, rules and regulations pertaining to Customs, Domestic Taxes and all relevant Government Agencies for a period of 3 years prior to application for authorisation. The implementation of AEO programme in Rwanda is in progress. 34 out of 82 AEO companies approved at regional level (EAC region) are Rwandan companies of which only 1 company is a Transport. “We need more transporters to come on board,” Commissioner Uwamariya stated.  Benefits for Businesses with AEO status receive privileges related to their high level of compliance which are which include, priority treatment of consignments if selected for control, choice of place of controls  for their convenience, fewer physical and document based controls that help them improve their business predictability and improve their market access, speed and cost of doing business reduced. As our AEO programme is at EAC level, the benefits it offers are across the region through Mutual Recognition among Partner States. Laurent Habimana, a transporter with Family Legacy Trading, said that due to difficulties at borders and in different neighbouring countries, corruption at different points of checking, a truck which could do three to four rounds of business, a transporter would only take one round, but with Authorized Economic Operators he thinks it has many benefits because non AEO transporters are due to pay transit licence o monthly basis, delay in putting seals to consignment of goods, procedures that take a long time to load and offload the trucks. “We generate revenues from rounds of transports we make; when clearance is complicated we go into position of loss.”  The transport sector contributes considerably towards poverty reduction and economic growth, and serves as support to other economic sectors. It plays a fundamental role in the economy of Rwanda as it contributes about 7% to the GDP, and represents about 15% of total service delivery.