Following a successful implementation, the Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) pioneered here is to be adopted in the region.
By the end of 2016, goods moving along the northern corridor (Mombasa-Kigali) will be monitored in real time, curbing dumping, theft and other vices. Realizing ETCS’s immense benefits, Kenya and Rwanda are adopting the system.
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) on September 26, 2016, signed a contract with Malaysia-based BSmart, the ECTS developer. URA Commissioner General Doris Akol represented URA, while Stephen Teang signed for BSmart.
Akol hailed BSmart, saying the company’s technology could be further utilized to monitor service delivery. Trademark East Africa (TMA) senior director for Trade, Richard Kamajugo, disclosed that the routes from Mombasa to Kigali, the Rwanda capital, have already been geo-mapped. These routes are input into the system.
TMA, which facilitates regional trade, is funding the expansion at over $8m. Following signing of the contract, URA Customs commissioner, Dicksons Kateshumbwa, lauded the development.
“On implementation, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda will jointly attach electronic seals onto cargo at Mombasa. The implication is that goods cannot disappear in anyone’s territory. We will have rapid response teams to intervene swiftly,” stated Kateshumbwa.
ECTS comprises a central monitoring centre and e-seals which communicate with the centre whenever vehicles divert from geo-mapped routes or when goods are tampered with. Rapid response teams are dispatched when things go wrong.
The system is internet-based and does not require massive physical infrastructure, which makes implementation easier and faster. The e-seal’s long battery life helps to track and recover goods whenever dumped. According to Kateshumbwa, some goods along the northern corridor severally disappeared in the past, causing losses to business entities.
“This will not happen again because if a vehicle stops anywhere with no explanation or prior notice, we will know. People will not lose cargo anymore,” he stated.
The southern corridor (Dar es Salaam-Bujumbura) is expected to be monitored by a similar system, according to officials. Launched at URA in May 2014, ECTS triggers an alarm whenever there is diversion from the designated route, an unusually-long stopover or when someone attempts to open a container.
URA uses the system to monitor the movement of goods with high revenue risk on which taxes have not yet been paid and are destined for the domestic market and those in transit to neighbouring countries.
Following its implementation, the system has helped to foil highway robberies and avoid delays before cargo gets to its destination or crosses the border to another country.
Other than advantages to customs, the system provides real-time information on the location and status of the cargo to transporters and cargo owners, or their agents, as the goods are transported from Mombasa to Kigali.
Until now, goods owners relied on calls made to drivers, who often told lies about their whereabouts. The costs of physical escorts, risk of diversion of cargo, absence of reliable statistics, inability to know the actual location and status of goods were challenges that prompted the system.
Following its implementation, the benefits are evident, namely, predictability of arrival of goods and reduced transit time, which will further reduce the cost of doing business and real-time intervention in case of attempted theft.
The author works with URA’s Public & Corporate Affairs unit.
Source: Observer

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