Why this project?

Uganda’s international trade business community must regularly prepare and submit large volumes of information and documents to governmental authorities to comply with import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements. Extensive documentation requirements and their associated compliance costs constitute non – tariff barriers (NTBs) and increase the cost of doing business, thus inhibiting the development of intra-regional and international trade.
Phase I of the project was completed in May 2018 with 16 agencies transacting on the system: Uganda Revenue Authority; Uganda National Bureau of Standards; Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives; Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries; National Drugs Authority; Uganda Coffee Development Authority; Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development; Dairy Development Authority; Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Warehousing Operators; Clearing Agencies; Airlines (IATA); Uganda Free Zones Authority; Uganda Export Promotion Board and Transporters (licensing of trucks).

The implementation of Phase I of the UESW has already yielded benefits, motivating the need for a second phase that will expand the coverage of the UESW. According to World Bank Doing Business Report, 2018, the improvement of Uganda’s ranking in the Trading Across Borders indicator from 137 (2017) to 128 (2018) was a direct result of automation of the Certificate of Origin now acquired through UESW. As at June 2018 a total of 750,506 transactions were handled by the system.

Benefits include:

• Reduced cost of doing business due to reduced clearing times and paperless transactions
• Transparency through predictable procedures and release times has resulted in improvement in revenue collection.
• Faster clearance of goods by the agencies implementing the UESW
• Improved compliance due to automated and online processes
• Efficient deployment of other resources by regulating agencies and business and trade community.
• Increased inter agency cooperation and sharing of information among implementing agencies
• Availability of real-time statistics on transactions, release time, revenue collection and customer compliance generated by the UESW.

What:

A national electronic single window resolves the time and cost challenges and eliminates non-tariff barriers. In this case, UESW will link an additional 14 agencies to the 16 Ministries, Departments and Agencies that were connected during Phase I of the project. The expansion of the UESW will continue to reduce transaction costs and time associated with processing select imports and exports documentation.

Phase II will focus on:

• Integration of an additional 14 agencies into the UESW system
• Implementation of the UESW Single Transaction Point module
• Interfacing of UESW with the Uganda Registration System
• Implementation Review for Government Agencies with new MIS
• Development and operationalization of the Advance Ruling system
• Interfacing UESW with regional systems
• Integrating UESW with the Uganda Trade Information Portal

How:

TMA, with funding from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), is providing financial and technical assistance to the Uganda Revenue Authority, as the lead implementing agency, and Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, as the lead coordinating agency, to support the implementation of Phase II of the Uganda electronic single window.

Contact:

Ag. Senior Programme Manager: Sandra Kirenga
sandra.kirenga@trademarkea.com

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