Kenya is on course to meet the United Nations (UN) deadline for establishing a maritime single window system by April 2019, officials said on Saturday.
Amos Wangora, the CEO of the Kenya Trade Network Agency, told Xinhua news agency in Nairobi that Kenya was keen to comply with the International Maritime Organization obligation in order to facilitate maritime trade.
“A project team is already in place and is in the process of identifying vendor for the portal that will permit the electronic interchange of information for ships docking on Kenyan ports,” Wangora said.
“We anticipate that once the marine single window system is in place, there will be a 40 percent reduction in the time spent by shipping crew in submitting documents to public authorizes,” he said.
The Kenya Maritime Authority is also receiving support from the World Bank to help Kenya establish the Maritime Single Window System.
According to Wangora, currently ships arriving at Kenyan ports submit documents on cargo and passengers details manually.
“This hinders the smooth flow of international trade due to the time spent on submission of manual forms,” he said.
The maritime single window system is set to be connected to the National Electronic Single window system which was launched in 2014.
The authorities now say that the National Electronic Single window system was put in place to ensure electronic submission of documents for import and export trade.
