The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has signed a cooperation protocol with the Ministry of Finance, the Egyptian Banks Company (EBC), and Misr Technology Services Company (MTS), to link the national single window for foreign trade facilitation “Nafeza” with the Egyptian network of banks in order to exchange data and documents necessary for import operations electronically.
This step is in line with the state’s direction to implement the Advanced Cargo Information system, which aims to improve Egypt’s global index in the field of cross-border trade, and reduce the cost of imports by reducing the release time and accurately identifying the parties to the transaction in accordance with the procedures. This happens by linking Egyptian banks to the unified-window system of the Ministry of Finance through an electronic platform to receive the documents and data of shipments coming to Egypt electronically and present them to the banks to complete the work cycle without waiting for the original documents. This makes the import process rather speedy, eventually raising the country’s index in foreign trade operations.
The new protocol aims to facilitate import operations and customs clearance procedures. The currently applied paperwork cycle requires waiting for the original documents and data of incoming shipments for customs release procedures to be completed. This also helps reduce the risks of not knowing the parties associated with the import process and double checking the specifications of the incoming goods, which is beneficial for the Egyptian economy.
