Dr. Chris Kiptoo Country Director TradeMark East Africa with Charles Mbogori CEO KNCCI
TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) have today signed a Ksh. 7.5 million agreement for the design and development of a website that will automate the issuance of Certificate of Origin.
A Certificate of Origin is a document which certifies that a certain product being exported actually originates from the exporting country for the purpose of facilitating trade between countries. The Certificate of Origin is either preferential or ordinary. The Preferential Certificate of Origin is used for exports to the regions where Kenya has a preferential trade agreement such as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), COMESA, EAC, and European Union (EURO1). KRA currently issues the Preferential Certificates of Origin. The mandate to issue Ordinary Certificates of Origin reverted back to KNCCI in July 2014 after KEBS took over in 2005 following restructuring and reorganization of KNCCI.
Speaking at the launch, Charles Mbogori the CEO of KNCCI said “The signing of the financing agreement between KNCCI and TMEA is a milestone to trade facilitation process in Kenya. The automation process will include membership automation as well as the certificate of origin and KNCCI will be able to register members online from the County Chambers as well as at the National level. The application, verification, approvals and payments would all be undertaken online and this would assist KNCCI in service delivery to members and also enhance recruitment process.â€
TradeMark East Africa Kenya Country Director Chris Kiptoo added, “The e-portal will improve delivery of services to traders expediting the processing of certificates which will reduce costs that traders and exporters experience as a result of delays.â€
The website was set up because Kenyan exporters have been facing challenges in accessing manual certificates of origin. With the online portal, KNCCI stakeholders (members and non-members alike) will apply for certificates of origin online. The website will also include business development process which will entail online registration, automated verification and processing of registration, online payment for registration and automated issuance of registration (membership certificate).
TMEA is spearheading adoption of ICT within key government and non-government institutions to transform their processes and increase efficiencies.The KNCCI website is part of the Kenyan government digitization process, and will also be integrated with other government agencies including Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) via an interface with the Kenya National Single Window currently in development by the Kenya Trade Network Agency (KENTRADE).