Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade) and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) have been working jointly to integrate the Trade Facilitation Platform (TFP) and the KEBS Information Management System (KIMS). The integration has successfully automated the submission of the local Certificate of Conformity (COC), Foreign Certificate of Conformity, and Certificate of Inspection through TFP.
“We, therefore, wish to notify all the stakeholders that effective 28th November 2022, the application of Local COC Consignment Documents and application for KEBS inspection and approval documents shall be lodged through TFP and processed in KIMS,” KenTrade and KEBS announced through a joint public notice.
The digitization of trade processes in Kenya has grown from a paltry 14 percent before the launch of the National Electronic Single Window System, TradeNet, that went live in 2013 to 94 percent with all export and import processes being carried out almost paperless, the acting Chief Executive officer of KenTrade, Mr. David Ngarama said in a recent interview with CNBC Africa.
This has reduced the cost of business and fast-tracked export and import processes, he said. TradeNet System is now fully integrated into the Integrated Customs Management System (iCMS), which replaced the over-a-decade-old Simba system Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) ran. The government collects over US$22.19 million through the system annually, with most Government agencies recording double-digit growth in revenue.
By last year, the agency had implemented all the modules that were envisaged in the Kenya TradeNet System, with the latest being the Risk Management module.
It has embarked on other trade facilitation tools. In 2017, KenTrade launched the Information for Trade in Kenya (InfoTradeKenya) portal. In March 2019, KenTrade introduced the i-ScreenKenya system to the trading community and other stakeholders to enable them to access and search for information regarding their potential trading partners.
Another significant milestone KenTrade has made is the launch of the Kenya Maritime Single Window System. This was a joint project with the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) on the implementation of the FAL Convention.
The latest project that KenTrade has carried out is the Ksh90 million Business Intelligence (BI) Tool. The tool seeks to collect extensive data on Kenya’s import and export trade.
The new BI Tool will analyze and disseminate data in real-time to trade facilitators and government agencies aimed at making better data-driven decisions. The BI tool helps to facilitate ease of trade in Kenya through extraction and analysis of real-time data to help trade facilitators and government agencies make data-driven decisions.
KenTrade’s new Business Intelligence (BI) Tool released its first import and export report recently, which showed that Kenya’s export earnings for 2021 went up by 17 percent to Sh666.7 billion compared to Sh567.4 billion in 2020 because of the strengthening of the dollar.
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