The Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) on Tuesday launched the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electronic Certificate of Origin (e-CoO) to facilitate the easy movement of goods and reduce the cost of doing business within the region.
Speaking at the launch, Willbroad Poniso, Namibia’s head of Customs and Excise, said the expected benefits from the use of the SADC e-CoO include improving intra-regional commerce, encouraging a paperless environment, improving time efficiency, and lowering the risk of origin fraud.
“The certificate comes with several benefits for the exporter or manufacturer in that it allows for, among others, online registration of exporters, online submission of all required documents, and online approvals. Everything becomes electronic,” he said.
To reduce origin fraud, the system is equipped with security features such as online electronic certificate of origin authenticity verification, as well as optimal watermarking technology to distinguish between originals and copies of certificate of origin issued, Poniso added.
According to him, the implementation of the electronic certificate will ensure that the NamRA meets its strategic objective of enhancing trade facilitation and pursuing innovation, as well as improving compliance with regional and international requirements under the SADC protocol on trade.
The SADC e-CoO is an electronically processed and issued certificate of origin by an issuing authority attesting that the goods declared by an exporter conform to specific rules of origin. The SADC secretariat, through their customs administrations, has encouraged member states to migrate from the manual processing of the certificate of origin to the electronic version.
According to Poniso, the issuance of the SADC e-CoO will commence on Dec. 6, 2022, in respect of all applications relating to products traded under the SADC Protocol on Trade.
