The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce will receive a Sh7.73 million ($85,000) grant from TradeMark Africa to digitise the process of business certification.

The two organisations will ink a financial agreement today covering the first fiscal year. The full cost for the project and the timelines haven’t been disclosed yet. TradeMark Africa is a non-profit organisation established in 2010 to facilitate growth of regional and international trade in East Africa.

KNCCI, chaired by businessman Kiprono Kittony, is now the sole issuer of the Certificate of Origin, a function it regained last July from the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. The lobby group was in the past rocked in internal wrangles that destabilised it but has since recovered.

Exporters require the certificate for goods shipped to other markets, and automation is expected to cut costs and time taken in facilitating the process. KNCCI will also be equipped to avail trade information electronically.

Masinde Mwangale, the Chamber’s trade and investments officer, said yesterday that the process of integrating the manual and digital systems will commence immediately.

More than 1,000 Origin certificates are issued monthly to traders, who will now not need to make physical visits to KNCCI offices for the same. The certificate is required for exports destined for the Middle East, India, Russia, Eastern and Central European markets.

Besides cutting the paperwork, the online platform will also be interlinked with counterpart chambers in export destinations to ease the process for businesses.

Source: The Star

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.