Joint efforts by East African Community (EAC) member States to reduce the cost of doing business in the region have received a major boost with the planned operationalisation of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) on July 1. The move also forms a major stride towards the attainment of a fully- fledged customs union in the five member States of the regional organisation. Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda started rolling out the Single Customs Territory in January under the ‘Tripartite Initiative for Fast Tracking the East African Integration.” The initiative is part of efforts to fast-track programmes for regional integration. The three countries, which form the Northern Corridor have already installed the necessary systems and deployed customs officers to the port of Mombasa. The SCT provides for, among others, centralised clearance of goods, removal of multiple roadblocks along the transit corridor and simplification of customs procedures. “We expect to go full blast, in a phased approach, in the implementation of the SCT on July 1,” said Swaleh Twahir Faraj, an assistant manager in-charge of the Customs Department at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Source: Standard Digital

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