The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) in partnership with TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) has launched the KNCCI trade portal to automate issuance of Certificate of Origin to help streamline exports.
The system has also been integrated to Equity Bank, allowing for real time payments and receipt of notifications through mobile phones or online.
Speaking at the launch, Mr. Kiprono Kittony the chairman of KNCCI said, “The portal is in response to the challenge exporters’ face in accessing manual certificate of origin including delays. It will enhance security of the exports documents, create more transparency and speed in the issuance of the ordinary Certificate of Origin and thereby actively play its facilitator role in enhancing a friendly trade environment.”
With the online portal, KNCCI stakeholders (members and non-members alike) will experience less delays synonymous with the manual systems. In addition to certificate application, the portal also allows for online membership registration, access to relevant trade information as related to type of business, and verification.
TradeMark East Africa Director General added, “TMEA is pleased to continue supporting KNCCI to improve efficiency and save time for traders. What we expect from this investment is a simplified process that will reduce the time it takes to acquire a Certificate of Origin by half. This has a direct monetary benefit for businesses.”
An immediate time reduction in acquisition of a certificate of origin is expected from 2 days to less than 1 hour. The reductions will be realised due to the elimination of travels and physical verification required in the manual process. In readiness for the roll out, KNCCI has undertaken training and member sensitization in all the five key regions including Mombasa, Nairobi, Eldoret, Kisumu and Naivasha.
The KNCCI trade portal is part of the Kenyan government digitization process, and will be integrated to the Kenya Electronic Single Window.
