The Kenyan Government agency in charge of running the online cargo clearance platform – the Kenya TradeNet System – hosted a two days industry stakeholders forum to consult and gather requirements for the Business Intelligence Tool, Integration Layer, and Data Warehouse project that it is currently developing.
Representatives drawn from Mombasa Port and Northern Corridor Community Charter, a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism that ensures a concerted approach towards transforming the Port of Mombasa and the Northern Corridor into an efficient, reliable, and globally competitive trade and transport corridor. The Charter has 52 signatories.
KenTrade is a member of the Port Charter and chairs the ICT sub-committee tasked with automating data collection for the port charter secretariat.
The Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse project seeks to facilitate monitoring of key performance indicators in the Port Charter by providing a central database of trade statistics and business intelligence tools for data analytics.
Setting up of KenTrade was as a result of the need by the Government of Kenya to reduce the costly delays experienced in cargo clearance along the Kenyan Ports and Airports. The Kenya TradeNet System was launched by the East African Community (EAC) regional Heads of States in Nairobi in May 2014 as an intervention to this trade logistics challenge.
The system today provides access to Importers, Exporters and Clearing Agents to submit trade documents for processing by the Partner Government Agencies (PGAs). The System has recorded over 14,000 users, registered with 41 stakeholder organizations including 36 Partner Government Agencies (PGA’s) drawn from both public and private sectors.
By July 2021, over 3,994,997 permits had been issued through the system and over 2,516,799 Unique Consignment References (UCR) processed since 2014. The agency has implemented all envisaged modules.
With this success, some gaps still exist in the import, export, and transit processes in Kenya especially beyond the regulatory and compliance requirements automated through TradeNet environment.
“Traders are often left on their own to find other necessary services after fulfilling government processes and there is a need for an e-commerce platform to address these gaps through a market linkage service platform,” Mr. Amos Wangora Chief Executive Officer of KenTrade said in a recent statement.
