Documents and Steps in Clearing Goods – Customs Procedures (Senior 3 Entrepreneurship) | Ganzaa

Customs Procedures

Lessons

Senior 3 · Entrepreneurship

Customs Procedures

4 lessons

Lesson 3 of 4

Documents and Steps in Clearing Goods

25 min

From the lorry to the shop

A container like those in the photograph may hold goods that a Rwandan trader ordered weeks ago. Before the trader can sell a single carton, the goods must be cleared: declared, checked, taxed and released by customs. Since 2012 this has been done through the Rwanda Electronic Single Window (ReSW), an online system in which the clearing agent, customs and the other government agencies all handle the same declaration. RRA reports that it cut the average time to clear imports from 2 days 18 hours to 1 day 15 hours.

Definition

Customs clearance: the process of meeting all customs requirements so that goods may be released: declaring them, presenting documents, inspection where needed and paying duties and taxes.

Rwanda Electronic Single Window (ReSW): the online platform, launched in 2012, through which traders submit one declaration that covers customs and the other agencies’ requirements.

Clearing agent (customs agent): a company licensed by the Commissioner for Customs Services to declare and clear goods on behalf of importers and exporters.

Documents needed to declare goods

Document	Issued by	What it shows
Commercial invoice (original)	the seller	the goods, quantities, prices and total value: the starting point for the customs value
Packing list	the seller	what is in each package, with weights and marks, so customs can check the goods
Bill of lading (sea) or airway bill (air)	the shipping company or airline	that the goods were shipped, by whom and to whom; it is also the receipt and contract for carriage
Freight and insurance invoices	the transporter and the insurer	the cost of transport and insurance, if not on the commercial invoice, to find the CIF value
Certificate of origin	an authority in the exporting country	where the goods were made, so that EAC or COMESA goods can enter duty-free
Import permit or licence	the agency concerned	permission to import restricted goods
Other certificates	regulators such as standards, food and drug, or plant and animal health agencies	that goods such as food, medicines, chemicals and cosmetics meet the rules

The clearing agent enters these details in the customs declaration on ReSW and attaches scanned copies. RRA requires goods worth more than Frw 500,000 to be declared through a licensed clearing agent.

Definition

Commercial invoice: the seller’s bill to the buyer, listing the goods sold, their quantities, unit prices and total.

Packing list: a list of the contents of each package in a consignment, with weights and identifying marks.

Bill of lading: a document issued by a shipping company when goods are loaded on a ship; it is a receipt for the goods, evidence of the contract of carriage and a document of title. An airway bill does the same job for goods sent by air.

Certificate of origin: a document certifying the country in which goods were produced.

Steps in clearing imported goods

Arrival and reporting. The transporter reports the goods to customs, and the cargo manifest (the list of everything carried) is lodged. The goods stay under customs control at a border post or in a customs warehouse.
Lodging the declaration. The importer gives the documents to a clearing agent, who lodges the declaration on ReSW. For goods traded within the region, and for some others such as perishable goods, medicines and farm inputs, it can be lodged before arrival (pre-clearance), so the next steps start early.
Assessment. The system calculates the duties and taxes from the goods’ tariff code, customs value and origin. The agent passes the assessment notice to the importer.
Payment. The importer pays the duties, taxes and the processing fee (RRA lists Frw 3,000 for a regular import declaration), directly or through the agent.
Channel and verification. ReSW assigns the consignment to a channel by risk. RRA’s service targets are about 1 hour for the blue channel, used by compliant traders such as Authorised Economic Operators and Gold Card holders; about 1.5 days for yellow, where the documents are checked; and about 2 days for red, where the goods are also inspected. Other agencies give their approvals in the same system.
Release. Customs issues a release, and the importer must take the goods out of the customs area without delay.
Post-clearance audit. Customs may later check the importer’s records, so the importer must keep accurate records of every transaction.

Tip

Memory hook: “A-D-A-P-C-R-A”. Arrive, Declare, Assess, Pay, Channel, Release, Audit. In an exam, state each step and who does it: the transporter reports, the agent declares, the system assesses, the importer pays, customs verifies and releases.

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Worked example 1: the missing document

A trader in Rubavu imports tinned tomatoes from a country outside the EAC by sea through the port of Dar es Salaam. Her agent attaches the commercial invoice, the packing list and an EAC certificate of origin. Which document is missing, and which one does not help her?

Missing: the bill of lading, because the goods came by sea from outside the EAC. As a food, the tomatoes may also need a certificate from the food safety regulator.

Not helpful: an EAC certificate of origin can only be issued for goods made in the EAC; tomatoes from outside the EAC pay the common external tariff. The trader is illustrative.

Worked example 2: how much time did the Single Window save?

RRA reports that average import clearance fell from 2 days 18 hours to 1 day 15 hours. Find the saving as a percentage.

Convert to hours: $2 \times 24 + 18 = 66$ hours and $24 + 15 = 39$ hours.

Saving: $66 - 39 = 27$ hours, and $\frac{27}{66} \times 100\% \approx 40.9\%$ RRA rounds this to a 40% reduction.

Interpret. For a trader paying a lorry and driver by the day, more than a day saved on every consignment is a real cost saving, passed on in lower prices.

Warning

Common mistakes. (1) Putting payment last: in Rwanda the duties are paid after assessment and before release. (2) Thinking the red channel means the trader did something wrong: it means the consignment was selected for physical inspection by risk rules. (3) Forgetting the audit: blue-channel goods are released quickly but can be audited afterwards.

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Practice

Define customs clearance and clearing agent.
Name five documents used to declare imported goods, and state what each shows.
Distinguish between a bill of lading and an airway bill.
Arrange these steps in the correct order: release; assessment; arrival and reporting; payment; lodging the declaration; channel and verification.
Explain the difference between the yellow and red channels.
RRA reports that export clearance fell from 2 days 16 hours to 1 day 4 hours. Calculate the percentage reduction to the nearest whole number.
Explain two advantages of the Electronic Single Window for a small importer.

Show answersHide answers

Customs clearance: meeting all customs requirements (declaring, documents, inspection where needed, payment) so goods may be released. Clearing agent: a company licensed by the Commissioner for Customs Services to declare and clear goods for importers and exporters.
Any five: commercial invoice (goods, quantities, prices, value); packing list (contents of each package, weights); bill of lading or airway bill (shipment and contract of carriage); freight and insurance invoices (transport and insurance costs); certificate of origin (where the goods were made); import permit (permission for restricted goods); regulators’ certificates (that goods meet standards).
A bill of lading is issued for goods carried by sea and is also a document of title; an airway bill is issued for goods carried by air.
Arrival and reporting; lodging the declaration; assessment; payment; channel and verification; release.
Yellow: only the documents are checked (about 1.5 days). Red: the documents are checked and the goods physically inspected (about 2 days).
$2 \times 24 + 16 = 64$ h and $24 + 4 = 28$ h; $\frac{64 - 28}{64} \times 100\% = \frac{36}{64} \times 100\% \approx 56\%$ . (RRA reports 55%.)
Any two: one online declaration covers customs and the other agencies, so fewer offices and trips; faster clearance, so less waiting and lower costs; pre-arrival lodging; payments and progress can be followed online.

Sources and credits

Documents and the duties of importers and agents: Importation and goods’ clearance, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), brochure, 5 November 2022.
Agent requirement, fee and channel times: Processing of customs import declaration, RRA (consulted 2026); Blue Channel facility and Pre-clearance, RRA (consulted 2026).
Single Window launch and clearance times: Rwanda Electronic Single Window (ReSW), RRA (consulted 2026).
Photo: Truck Containers, Mrbobax, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Written by Ganzaa: the flow chart, the tables, the worked examples and the practice items. The trader is illustrative (2026).

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1From the lorry to the shop

2Documents needed to declare goods

3Steps in clearing imported goods

From the lorry to the shop

Documents needed to declare goods

Steps in clearing imported goods