The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched an electronic certificate of origin system in Kenya to digitize trade procedures, aiming to cut costs and delays in intra-regional trade by replacing manual certifications.

• The new digital system will streamline customs procedures and boost intra-regional trade by allowing exporters and customs authorities to process certificates electronically, reducing clearance times at border crossings for goods qualifying for preferential tariff treatment.
• Christopher Onyango, director of trade and customs at COMESA, stated the system will reduce bureaucracy in cross-border trade.
• Kenya joins Eswatini, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in implementing this system, which simplifies the application, issuance, exchange, and verification of certificates, with online certificates transmitted in real time.