The benefits cut across stakeholders with traders and business enjoying reduced transactional costs and trade agencies improve their efficiency due to streamlined processes. Once completed, the UESW will connect to other East African Community Partner States’ Electronic Single Windows. UESW is already having economic impacts in Uganda. 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. Eight agencies: Uganda Revenue Authority; Uganda Coffee Development Authority; National Drug Authority; Uganda National Bureau of Standards; Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives are transacting on the single window platform with the expectation that a total of 22 agencies will be connected by the project end date.

Benefits:

Reduced delays when complying with government regulations and requirements.

Transparency through predictable procedures and release times will result in improvement of revenue yields.

Faster clearance: the more agencies involved in UESW, the more effective and faster the clearance process as documentation is inter-related.

Improved compliance: Due to automated and online processes, UESW will enhance compliance from the business community further benefiting customs. It will also improve the registration of Authorized Economic Operators (currently 36)

Efficient deployment of other resources by regulating agencies and business and trade community.

Improved application of Risk Management to improve enforcement through the introduction of joint profiling of companies, thus considerably reducing the number of declarations being selected to physical verification for Uganda National Bureau of Standards, National Drug Authority, Uganda Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.

The electronic single window will generate a series of new reporting options that will allow all regulatory agencies and other stakeholders to have real-time statistics on transactions, release time, revenue collection and customer compliance; and

With the increasing volume of information required by regulatory agencies (in different formats and using different systems), the UESW will provide an open system with the purpose of handling documents/data automatically.