
As a man born in the 60s, I’ve always had a verse in my head whenever I get on the road to travel: “If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair”. Now, as I get on the road to the port authority in Burkina Faso, the verse shifts to something else. This can also be a reminder to those who are going to do business in Burkina Faso, exporting something, or maybe as I do now shipping electronic spare parts for home appliances: “If you are exporting to Burkina Faso, be sure to have ECTN in your hand.”
For those of you who are rookies, when it comes to exporting to West African countries, ECTN is a certificate which has valuable information about your exported goods. Yet, it is ab-so-lu-te-ly imperative unless you want to face demurrage levy and lose time while clearing goods from customs.
West African countries, whether it is ECTN, BSC or any other, require a cargo tracking number or as some call it a waiver, to clear your cargo off from destination ports.
What You Need To Know
I’ve done enough business around the globe, especially getting parts from Asian markets and forwarding it to West Africa. However, in my first experience, at the last minute, I realized the waiver was missing.
When my colleague in Burkina Faso called to tell me that the shipment is missing the waiver; I was shocked. Our team back at the office are usually attentive to the transport documentation. Yet, as the requirement was new to us it happened and it happened with our biggest shipment to date.
My colleague, unbeknownst to me, had his past experience on these kinds of mishaps and quickly pointed me to a site called bscafrica.net. Not something to be proud of, but I am not a trusting person. Given the desperation of the situation, I had contacted them and BSC Africa agents quickly come to rescue.
A five-minute talk on live chat, 3 emails, and a 40 minute time interval, they delivered a draft which could be used to clear the goods. This is a new standard for me now. 40 minutes to clear my goods, a secure payment gateway and friendly agents are what you need to check for when you are using an agency to get your Burkina Faso ECTN certificate.
What You Need To Have
To sum it up, make sure to have these ready before applying from bscafrica.net for an ECTN waiver for Burkina Faso
– Bill of Lading – if you don’t have that, no worries, a draft can be used, too.
– Commercial Invoice – Incoterm, reference, and the date have to be mentioned in some ways, this is probably a no-brainer.
– Freight Invoice – It has to be provided if the freight value is not mentioned on the commercial invoice.
Start a chat from their site or send an email with the documents above and voila! You are on your way to a fast clearing from Burkina Faso ports.
You will thank me when it’s all done, believe me.