Compiled by Akinyi Winiefred, Media Management
The UESW is a trade facilitation initiative that enables international (cross-border) traders to submit regulatory documents at a single location. It enhances clearance efficiency and reduces time taken to clear cargo by enhancing sharing and exchange of information between customs, other border agencies and private sector stakeholders.
The system is implemented by Government of Uganda in partnership with DANIDA through TradeMark East Africa.
Development of this system was premised on the challenges traders used to go through while manually clearing trade documents at the different Government MDA’s. These included;
Number of documents; before the implementation of the single window, all regulatory requirements were enforced using prescribed forms.
Clearance delays; manual processes were time consuming with inaccurate information. Traders and to move from one government agency to another for paperwork.
Hight cost of doing business; physical movement from various agencies was costly. Also, government agencies had to procure and maintain stock of prescribed form.
Movement to access services; scattered across the Country, traders had no option other than visiting different agencies to apply for a service and going back.
Communication gaps; the actual delay is not a result of the actual service, but it is due to communication gap between trader and approving authority.
Compliance management issues; due to exchange of physical documents, it was easy to use a false or expired document since there was no mechanism to check the authenticity.
Some of the agencies on the system include;
Uganda Revenue Authority
Uganda National Bureau of Standards,
National Drug Authority
Uganda Coffee Development Authority
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries
Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives
Cotton Development Organization
International Air Transport Association
Uganda Export Promotion Board
Atomic Energy Council
National Environment Management Authority
Posta Uganda and other courier Companies
Insurance companies
Ministry of Water and Environment,
Uganda Communications Commission
Diary Development Authority
Uganda Free Zones Authority
transporters, warehouse operators, shopping lines, clearing Agencies, banks, e-certificates of origin among others.
Reduction in clearance time by almost 68 %. Clearance time for exports reduced by 672 hours in 2015 to 83 hours in 2020 and 744 hours in 2015 to 24 hours in 2020 for imports.
Reduced administrative costs for both traders and Government due to elimination od and application fee charged by printing companies, additionally all fees for Certificate of Origin were removed.
Required documents to process clearance in customs have reduced from 10 to 3 documents due to process dematerialization and data exchange with other agencies.
To create an account on the UESW, visit https://singlewindow.go.ug/stp/#/register
