KenTrade has planned to train TradeNet system users following the ongoing upgrade to enhance its efficacy and save it from becoming technologically obsolete.
The agency, which operates the online cargo clearing platform, commenced the User Acceptance Testing in September last year to evaluate the system usability and functionalities to determine whether it meets the stipulated requirements. This process is still ongoing.
The upgrade followed a detailed gap analysis in February 2020 with stakeholders who provided valuable input, which was used in the upgrade work, Chief Executive Officer Mr. Amos Wangora told a virtual meeting that KenTrade held yesterday to update its stakeholders on the milestone it has made on trade facilitation.
Users will be requested to submit requests or register for the training which will mainly focus on the submission of permits, in a one-month window.
“The transition from the old system to the upgraded system will be a seamless process with minimum disruptions and once completed, the system will provide a much better experience for users. To this end, I want to sincerely thank you for your continued support that has enabled us to achieve notable milestones in the implementation of the planned system upgrade,” Wangora said.
The new system is scheduled to Go-Live with Phase 1- Piloting with Selected Users for April 5, 2021.
“It will take approximately 18 months to finalize on the Upgrade, but I want to assure you that the process will have minimum interference with the normal operations of the System,” KenTrade CEO Amos Wangora told a similar stakeholder’s meeting last year.
The upgrade will address the challenges of delays in document processing, lack of a 2-factor user authentication mechanism and address the problem of the limited document security features.
Other challenges the system has experienced in the past and which the upgraded system seeks to cure are limited visibility of information to users due to lack of dashboards and few standard reports and cumbersome user registration process delaying registration process.
The upgraded system will also focus on Master Data harmonization with Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) with increased ability to add more integration, make user administration easy and reduce the high total cost of ownership.
Kenya TradeNet System has been operating since October 31, 2013 when it officially went live. It has registered over 12,500 system users and 35 PGA, with 5 of them completely integrated and others in progress.
Crimson Logic of Singapore is upgrading the TradeNet System. The government collects over US$22.19 million through the system per year with the majority of Government agencies recording double digit growth in revenue year in year on.
Crimson Logic developed the software and has been assisting in running it but according to Wangora, the process of enhancing local capacity is also ongoing to reduce overreliance on software developers. “The new system will utilize current technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Block chain,” Wangora said in an earlier interview.
The process to upgrade the system, dubbed Trade Facilitation Platform (TFP), started in December last year with gap analysis.
