Payments to be digitalised for Cross Boarder trading
Written by Skyz Metro FM on August 18, 2023
Charity Chikara
18.08.23
The Zimbabwe Revenue authority has revealed the continuation of plans to introduce the Zimbabwe Electronic Single Window System as measures to enhance efficient clearance of legitimate traffic and trade facilitation at the country’s ports of entry.
The Zimbabwe Electronic Single Window (ZESW) concept was introduced in 2022 to improve trade facilitation and to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in pursuing the goals of revenue collection, enforcement of trade laws, social protection, and providing business intelligence to the government.
In a statement ZIMRA said the major beneficiaries of the single window initiative will be importers and exporters, shipping and freight forwarders, the transport sector, customs administration as well as government departments and agencies, whose mandate includes the movement of food, drugs, health, agricultural-related products, and environment.
The statement cited that Zimbabwe provides the gateway to Africa through the north and south corridor, hence efficient trade facilitation at the country’s ports of entry is key for the region’s rapid economic growth.
The (ZESW) initiative is also in sync with global trends on customs reforms and best practices, as well as a National Development Strategy 1(NDS1) priority on trade facilitation.
The project’s first stage of implementation is set to be launched by the end of September 2023 and once commissioned, clients and stakeholders will not be moving from one agency to another as all the regulatory and transitory services, processes and payments will be done online through a single platform, thus faster, better, and transparent.
ZIMRA also said other benefits include enhanced risk analysis, improved security, reductions in corruption and illegal trade activities, enhanced transparency, ease of access to trade statistics, and accountability.
Other countries that have successfully implemented the single window concept include Jamaica, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya.
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