Ouagadougou: Burkinabe journalists visited the representation of the Burkinabè Shippers' Council (CBC) in Lomé, Togo, on Thursday, August 1, 2024. This activity is part of a trip press conference for an immersion on the Ouagadougou-Lomé corridor, allowed media people to immerse themselves in the structure's missions and to discuss with its partners involved in freight management via the autonomous port of Lomé. The Burkinabè Shippers' Council (CBC) is a major player in the transport and logistics chain in Burkina Faso. To carry out its missions, the institution worked on its network along the service corridors and in the transit ports of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Tema in Ghana, Cotonou in Benin and Lomé in Togo. . In the Togolese capital, the CBC representation is located in the port area of ??the city. Housed in a R+1 building, it is staffed by around twenty agents. The waiting room is always teeming with users who come for various formalities. Slowly, its first manager, Boukari Ouédraogo, introduced journal ists to all the services. From the operations office to accounting and freight registration, media people were able to get a first-hand look at how the representation works. 6- The representative of the CBC, Boukari Ouédraogo, discussing with road stakeholders on the issue of parking. According to Boukari Ouédraogo, it has other local offices in the towns of Tsévié, Tabligbo and in the Adétikopé Industrial Platform (PIA). 'Our mission is to manage Burkina Faso's foreign trade freight,' he confided. As such, the Togolese representation collaborates with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Burkina Faso (CCI-BF), the National Council of Shippers of Togo, the port of Lomé and many other stakeholders in the port community. For greater efficiency in the exercise of its mission, said Boukari Ouédraogo, the CBC representation in Togo works with modern information systems which allow, upon the arrival of the ship, to examine cargo declarations. filed by freight forwarders. 1- The representative of the CBC in Togo, Boukari Ouédraogo: 'The CBC serves shippers through the optimization of the transport chain'. It is on this basis, he explained, that the distribution of freight which is 1/3 or 2/3 is made when the goods come by sea and left at 50%, if it comes from the local market. . After that, he added, there is the collection of the goods at the port followed by other procedures until loading. Shipper assistance, a priority At the end of this stage, there is the delivery of the loading voucher and the road trafficker's tracking slip (BSTR) for ordinary and hydrocarbon products and an imported vehicle tracking slip (BSVI) for imported vehicles. . 'Beyond freight tracking, the most important thing for us is the assistance of shippers,' insisted Mr. Ouédraogo, stressing that there are, sometimes, difficulties in ports linked to unloading and storage areas. and with customs. With a view to resolving these concerns, the CBC intervenes with these stakeholders to facilitate the removal of goods. 2- For the head of t he CBC Togo operations office, Khamya Koné Diao, more than a hundred freight declarations are recorded per day. According to the CBC representative, the autonomous port of Togo is the most popular with hinterland countries such as Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. And this, he suggested, was accentuated by the geopolitical situation marked by the security situation and the creation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). According to the head of the operations office, Khamya Koné Diao, nearly a hundred freight declarations are recorded per day. 'These declarations can correspond to 150 or 300 trucks,' he said. Despite this influx, CBC Togo users appreciate the diligence in processing their file. 3- The truck driver, Issifou Tchanondo, recognized the diligence in processing the files. One of them is Issifou Tchanondo. He is a truck driver on the Ouaga-Lomé corridor. After completing all the formalities, indicated that he was waiting for his loading slip. 'Everything is going well here between us and the CBC,' s aid Mr. Tchanondo. However, with the significant flow of transit, the CBC representation in Togo, according to Boukari Ouédraogo, faces difficulties linked to non-compliance with franchise deadlines, false declarations by certain freight forwarders, others linked to the transfer of containers to the Pia platform and the narrowness of the parking lots. In this sense, the truck driver, Abdel Wahab, took the opportunity to appeal to find parking for the long waiting times. In situ, the CBC representative informed that 11 hectares of land had been acquired, in the locality of Adétikopé, about twenty km from Lomé, to build a convenient parking lot. 4- According to the CCI-BF representative in Togo, Bintou Francine Zongo: 'We work closely with the CBC for the good management of freight'. 'We are working to resolve the parking problem that arises on the corridor,' reassured Boukari Ouédraogo. He also stressed that his structure maintains good collaboration with its partners including the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Burkina Faso (CCI-BF). Its representative in Togo, Bintou Francine Zongo, has, in fact, maintained always working in synergy with the CBC for the consistent support of Burkinabè economic operators for the facilitation of the transport of goods on the corridor. 'We have the same economic actors that we support and we work in cohesion to address the concerns of freight carriers,' confided Bintou Francine Zongo. This opinion is shared by the port delegate of the Sole Association of Road Transporters of Burkina (FUTRB), Mahamadou Djigma. According to him, the FUTRB is in tandem with the CBC for the management of freight so that it arrives in Burkina Faso on time. 'The CBC has opened its doors to us and we are working together for transparency,' he said. Source: Burkina Information Agency