CONTEXT
Kenya is an important transport and trade hub in Africa, in particular for the landlocked members of the East African Community (EAC: Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan). Kenya is a Partner State of the EAC and a member of the Northern Trade Corridor. The maritime seaport of Mombasa plays a vital role in the Northern Corridor as a multimodal trade route linking the landlocked countries of the Great Lakes Region. Traders face numerous bottlenecks and redundancies though, making trade costly and slow. A mapping and documentation at the TradeKenyaPortal has unveiled numerous complexities. To address these, Kenya TradeNet Network Agency (KenTrade) embarked on a series of deep-dive simplification and harmonization exercises. The aim is to support Kenya’s export economy by ease of export procedures.
WHAT WE DO
Together with the main project partner KenTrade, the project works on the improvement of export procedures to facilitate trade. The overall objective of the project is to map, simplify and where possible digitise trade procedures for two commodities avocado and fish. This is done in close cooperation with key government regulators and the private sector.
DIGITAL SOLUTION
The project leverages the fully functional InfoTradeKenya Portal developed by KenTrade, in partnership with UNCTAD and TradeMark East Africa (TMEA). The portal was developed in response to an information gap identified in cargo clearance information among the trading community. Moreover, the system consolidates all import and export procedures into one portal (“Single Window”). It is accessible to all those involved in international trade.
BENEFITS
- Cost reduction of border formalities for businesses and governments.
- Simplified, faster and more secure export processes.
- Improved conditions for SMEs to access global value chains with positive effects on trade, investment and jobs.
Photo source: BigBlues – adobe.stock.com
