BUJUMBURA March 3rd (ABP) – The Ministry of Trade, Transport, Industry and Tourism organized, on Wednesday March 1, 2023, in Bujumbura, an exchange meeting on the new laws governing air transport in Burundi for the proper functioning of the latter.
The director general of transport, Innocent Nibizi, indicated that the new regulations concern the registration of air travel agencies for obtaining an approval card because travel agencies are not registered in the ministry responsible transport. Hence, it is difficult to find where they are located. This is what prompted the establishment of an ordinance that governs the new regulations for their proper functioning, he explained.
Mr. Nibizi also indicated that those agencies are of two kinds, namely foreign air travel agencies which must pay a thousand dollars to be registered and national law air travel agencies which must pay one million Burundian francs for that registration. After the registration, the ministry will issue them an approval card which will be valid for one year.
The director general of transport did not fail to point out that he plans to put in place regulations in the form of a regulatory authority whose mission will be to regulate air transport, especially travel agencies. He underlined that in Burundi 143 travel agencies have been registered but the ministry does not know how they operate.
With this innovation, they will be able to pay the taxes and will therefore contribute to the development of the country.
He asked the representatives of the agencies present in the meeting to submit their challenges to the ministry in charge of transport in order to help them find a solution. Asked why they should be registered, when they are already registered with the Burundi Development Authority (ADB), he pointed out that the agencies are like companies and should register with the ADB to start operating but, he specified, each company once set up, must have a field of work in which it must be regulated, stressing that travel agencies are in the field of transport, which means that they must be known because, whenever they encounter problems, they turn to the ministry to help them find the solution.