Kenya Trade Network Agency [KenTrade] was awarded the 2nd best Government Institution for being the “Best managed, ethical, accountable, transparent and accessible organization in Africa” during the African Public Service Day (APSD) event that was held from 21st to 23rd June 2019 at the KICC Nairobi.
The Agency scooped the award after it presented the Information for Trade in Kenya (InfoTradeKenya) portal, an innovative solution that has simplified international trade procedures for traders. InfoTradeKenya is an on-line platform which provides a comprehensive, single-point access to up-to-date trade related information mainly step-by-step guides to imports, exports and transit procedures in Kenya, thus reducing the number of interactions, requirements, time taken and administrative cost for traders.
While accepting the award, KenTrade Chief Executive Officer Amos Wangora noted that InfoTradeKenya portal was implemented to addresses the challenge of inaccurate and unclear information on international trade procedures and regulations of import and export that previously resulted to unwarranted penalties due to errors in documentation.
“InfoTradeKenya was implemented to simplify trade procedures and contains practical and up-to-date descriptions of steps to go through, as seen from the user’s point of view to assist in decision-making pertaining to import and export of commodities” he said. He added that the Agency has successfully documented procedures for over sixty import and export commodities and currently simplification of these trade procedures is being done to eliminate unnecessary steps, redundancies and duplications.
InfoTradeKenya was implemented with support from TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Under Article 1 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the WTO members shall make trade information available and updated to the extent possible and as appropriate. Kenya is the first country in East Africa to comply with this provision through implementation of the InfoTradeKenya which publishes step-by-step trade procedures, including all forms, requirements, duties, taxes and fees, time frame and contact data.
