In 2012, the countries forming the East Africa Community (EAC) set up a Single Customs Territory (SCT), creating a common system of clearance for goods moving in and out of the EAC. A destination model (DM) was adopted, whereby goods are verified and released at the first point of entry after assessment and payment of taxes have occurred in the destination country. Under the EAC DM, officers of the revenue authority of each EAC country are stationed at the borders of the Community and can process Custom taxes and clear goods that are destined for their country. Cargo is therefore checked at the point of entry, and possibly also at the border, for verification.

Critical to the operationalization of the SCT was the interconnectivity of Customs systems, which was done on a bilateral basis to enable real-time information sharing and transmission of notifications between the destination and first points of entry. In 2021, a project was launched to create a Single Customs Territory Centralized Platform that would enable the sharing of Customs declarations and other related Customs information between the EAC Partner States of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan. Instead of connecting Customs systems at the bilateral level, each Customs administration had to develop an interface connecting its Customs systems to the platform. Operational since July 2024, this platform can now also be used to exchange images of scanned cargo generated by NII equipment, with Kenya and Uganda leading the way.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) have in the past few years enhanced their collaboration to better regulate and monitor trade flows[1]. With over one million containers moved between the Kenya and Uganda border in 2023, and the Port of Mombasa in Kenya handling over 80% of Uganda’s maritime cargo, the two countries are highly dependent on each other to control trade operations efficiently. Cooperation is especially critical to ensure that goods declared in transit or at export do not end up in the domestic market or that prohibited and restricted items are not moved illegally between the two countries.

In 2019, the URA and the KRA signed a bilateral agreement which gave birth to several joint initiatives[2], including the integration of their respective centralized non-intrusive inspection (NII) operations systems to facilitate the sharing of images of scanned cargo.

Both Authorities were using NII equipment from the same manufacturers and had started working on the centralization of their image analysis operations domestically. They had asked their solution supplier to ensure that the integration solution would allow the visualization and analysis of various formats of images generated by various types of scanners, and that each item of NII equipment would be able to generate X-ray images in the WCO Unified File Format (UFF 2.0), a non-proprietary data format for the data generated by high-energy scanners.

The integration of the two NII operations systems was then done via the Single Customs Territory Centralized Platform. Once data from a scanner is received in one of the administration system, it is matched with corresponding trade documents. The data which both countries have agreed to share is compiled into a Scanned Image Message which contains the Customs declaration header, metadata, analysis report and links to UFF images stored in the scanner operations system. The message is then sent to the Single Customs Territory Centralized Platform, from where it is sent to the other Administration’s systems.

All cargoes entering or leaving Uganda territory pass through a high-energy scanner. To better understand how the data sharing process works, let us take the example of the export of a consignment from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through Uganda and Kenya. The steps would then be as follows:

1. The exporter submits the Customs declaration and other required documents via the DRC Customs electronic system.
2. The truck and its cargo are scanned at the Uganda-DRC border by URA officers. The image and Customs declaration are sent to the Command Centre in Kampala.
3. URA analysts examine the image against the Customs declaration and provide their conclusion, i.e. classify the shipment as suspicious or not suspicious. In both cases, a Scanned Image Message is uploaded on the Single Customs Territory Centralized Platform.
4. If they find that the shipment is suspicious, Customs officers at the land border entry point conduct a physical verification of the cargo.
5. If they find that the shipment is not suspicious, the truck continues its journey, passing through Uganda to reach the Kenya-Uganda border.
6. At the border, KRA officers scan the truck and its cargo. The image and the Customs declaration are sent to Nairobi Command Centre.
7. KRA analysts examine the image against the Customs declaration and have the possibility to download the URA Scanned Image Message.
8. If they find that the shipment is suspicious, KRA officers initiate the relevant procedure and manually inspect the cargo.
9. If they find that the shipment is not suspicious, the truck continues its journey from the Kenya land border to the maritime border, from where the cargo is to be exported.
10. At the maritime border, the truck and its cargo are once again scanned and the image and declaration sent to Nairobi Command Centre.
11. Steps 7, 8 and 9 are repeated.

Deploying the solution required investment in new servers, switches and firewalls in order to build data centres. The rooms where the data centres were to be located had to be equipped with air conditioning, fire extinguishing equipment and devices to guarantee a temperature range of 20-25°C (68-75°F) and a humidity range of 40-55%. They also needed to be dustproof and equipped with an anti-static floor. The URA and KRA also had to increase their network capacity and their level of power supply.

Each Authority was also responsible for deploying interfaces and applications on time, in addition to providing the necessary data to test the solution. Dedicated project managers were appointed by each Authority, and project teams were formed. They worked with the service supplier to draft business requirements, validate strategies and set up the systems. The project managers also had to obtain the permits required during the project’s execution and to coordinate with third-party NII system maintenance suppliers.

The service supplier was responsible for developing the solution and interfaces enabling X-ray image exchange, and for providing the hardware and commercial software required. He was also responsible for installing hardware in the respective country’s server room, deploying and debugging applications and interfaces with Customs and third-party systems, and conducting acceptance tests.

Since the launch of the new scheme, Kenya has shared over 20,000 images with Uganda, and Uganda more than 8,000 images with Kenya. The sharing of images seems to have increased the level of compliance of traders, with fewer cases of fraud and illicit trade being detected.

The system is still at an infant stage, with technical teams having to resolve issues every day. One of the key challenges is the lack of adequate storage infrastructure. This issue will need to be resolved before starting the next phase, which will see other EAC countries brought on board.

More information
Kennedy Okwany

[1] See article published in WCO News 92, edition June 2020: https://mag.wcoomd.org/magazine/wco-news-92-june-2020/deepening-customs-to-customs-collaboration-the-ura-kra-story/

[2] See article published in WCO News 92, edition June 2020: Deepening Customs-to-Customs collaboration: the URA-KRA story – WCO