On November 12 OGEFREM will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Office de Gestion du Fret Multimodal (Multimodal Fret Management Office in short OGEFREM) was established in 1980 to regulate the transport of Congolese imports and exports to manage the freight generated by the Congolese economy and to ensure cargo traceability from production to the final consignee.
Its main objectives are threefold:
- Management of the movement and traceability of the transport of all Congolese imports and exports. According to a statement issued by OGEFREM chief executive officer Patient Sayiba Tambwe, globally every state has the right to exercise its sovereignty over any freight/consignments of its own national territory origin and/or destination, and as such the Congolese state has entrusted this role to OGEFREM to ensure transport safety.
To this end, OGEFREM has set up and developed appropriate electronic instruments of freight traceability called Fiche Electronique des Renseignements à l’Importation (FERI) (Electronic Import Data Sheet), Attestation de Destination (AD) (Certificate of Destination CD) for surface and air freight in transit, and Fiche Electronique des Renseignements à l’Exportation (FERE) (Electronic Import Data Sheetà) used to cover export freight.
Since it is not present throughout the world, it mandates foreign-based companies, which act as agents, to effectively fulfil this role in foreign countries for DRC imports. This role has been entrusted to Transcom Services, a South African company, which is a principal agent of OGEFREM and assists in the traceability of freight originating from Southern Africa and some areas of the Asian continent.
- Its second objective is the development of logistics platforms at major consignment distribution points to better facilitate the international trade process to, from, and within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The creation of infrastructure like dry ports, lumber yards, vehicle fleet facilities and consignment consolidation centres, allows OGEFREM to effectively manage the national movement of freight for both imports and exports via all major freight movement corridors.
“OGEFREM has already developed and operates a lumber yard and vehicle fleet facilities at Boma, says its CEO, while Kasumbalesa dry port is in the development phase at the border with Zambia. It will be an extension of the seven international sea ports (Dar-es-Salaam, Nacala, Beira, Durban, Walvis-Bay, Luanda and Lobito), he adds.
3. OGEFREM also focuses on the promotion of DRC foreign trade and on the efficiency and improvement of the movement of goods generated by international trade.
