EGSAC has announced its expansion into four more African countries with the appointment of Freight-In-Time Ltd (FIT) as its exclusive member for East Africa, covering Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda.
In its home market of Kenya, the company has offices at the country’s major airports of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. It markets the export capacity of a number of different carriers throughout East Africa including Air Malawi, Egyptair Freighters and Jetlink Express focusing on key exports such as perishables, textiles and handicrafts. FIT also provides import services for airlines including bookings, collection from airline shed, customs clearance and delivery.
In Tanzania FIT has offices at Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza. Key airfreight exports include flowers, fruit and vegetables; FIT trucks any traffic which cannot be uplifted direct from Kilimanjaro, to Nairobi or Dar Es Salaam. Other key commodities include chilled fish, live animals, gold and gems, big game trophies, wood carvings and personal effects. As in Kenya, FIT also off ers import services to airlines.
FIT’s Uganda operations are based in Kampala, and at Entebbe airport. The company’s export business is centred around fresh vegetables, and fresh and chilled fish; it also off ers import services.
Meanwhile FIT’s Rwandan operations based in Kigali are benefiting from the country’s rapid recovery from earlier political turmoil, leading to growth in trade and the increased use of airfreight. FIT is contracted to off er full logistics distribution within East Africa for a number of projects such as those under PEPFAR (a US government initiative to combat HIV AIDS), providing import break bulk and clearance and re-distribution throughout East Africa using its air and road feeder services to all major points in Kenya (Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kakamega), Uganda (Entebbe, Kampala, Jinja), Tanzania (Arusha, Dar es Salaam), Rwanda (Kigali), Southern Sudan (Juba, Rumbek, Yei) and Congo. FIT has now launched a similar service for the IT sector, and expects to take on the import distribution business of two major global manufacturers during 2008.
Says FIT’s CEO Amit Shah: "Kenya has been identified as a key strategic base and hub for diplomatic missions, nongovernmental organizations and various governmental initiatives. Th rough the successful handling of projects like PEPFAR, and large volumes of perishables, FIT has made a signifi cant contribution to the growth of airfreight into and out of East Africa.
"We intend to develop the role of airfreight further with the introduction of regular charter flights, and the EGSAC network will play a key part in bringing this to fruition."
The EGSAC network now has 31 partners with over 70 offices in 34 countries.