Uganda’s cargo consolidators are building a digital platform to speed up customs clearance for small importers and to make it harder for unregistered operators to work in the sector.
The platform, BeezyLCL, is being developed by the Uganda Cargo Consolidators Association (UCCA) with funding from TradeMark Africa and in coordination with the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). Its stated aim is to replace the paperwork and scattered communication that slow the clearance of consolidated cargo.
The three organisations convened operators at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala on 29 May to gather industry views on the system’s design, bringing together consolidators, importers, exporters, government agencies and software developers.
Consolidation, also known as groupage, allows small and medium importers who cannot fill a shipping container to combine their goods into a single consignment. According to URA, consolidators must be registered with the revenue authority, the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, UCCA and the Ministry of Works and Transport before they can operate.
That registration requirement is central to the project. When URA Commissioner General John Rujoki Musinguzi met UCCA at Nakawa in September last year to discuss linking the two bodies’ systems, he warned that poor documentation had created loopholes for smuggling and illicit cargo handling. “There is no business that can work without regulation and registration,” he said, describing consolidators as partners in trade rather than targets.
UCCA chairperson Kenneth Ayebare told the same meeting that the association was close to automating its own operations and had brought proposals to the authority. He said identifying legitimate consolidators and tracking cargo movements remained difficult, and called for a central, verifiable registry.
BeezyLCL is intended to serve that purpose alongside its clearance functions. According to the platform, consolidators register or are onboarded by an administrator, then add their traders and shipment records. Consolidator notices and house bills are generated digitally, and traders can follow a consignment’s progress through to release from a bonded warehouse.
The system is designed to connect consolidators, traders, bonded warehouses, payment providers and URA on a single record. Planned links to the revenue authority’s customs systems, including ASYCUDA World, the Customs Clearing Interface and e-tax, are meant to let documents and payments move between institutions without being re-entered by hand. A cargo consolidators module built by URA is to be integrated into the platform.
Parts of the system are already running. BeezyLCL operates an access portal and publishes a directory of verified consolidators, currently listing six firms with contact details, so that traders can check who they are dealing with before committing cargo.
UCCA will lead development, testing, rollout and maintenance, and will handle user training, regulatory compliance and monitoring. TradeMark Africa is funding development, deployment, market rollout and the first year of running costs.
The May meeting also heard a presentation from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives on a separate platform for reporting non-tariff barriers — the procedural and regulatory obstacles that raise the cost of moving goods across borders. That system is also supported by TradeMark Africa.
Neither the value of TradeMark Africa’s funding nor a date for full rollout has been announced.