Many consider importing a car to Kenya to be a hectic, expensive affair involving endless paperwork with hidden costs that pile up.
This process can be quite frustrating and many prospective importers often feel that it isn't worth the effort, as the extra costs end up having a negative impact on their finances and businesses.
In many cases, attempts to involve brokers and middlemen also go south, as they demand exorbitant fees or collude with rogue officials and agents to fleece the importer.
However, this doesn't have to be the case, with an innovative new product changing the face of the import industry in the country.
The Import Duty Finance offering from Co-operative Bank seeks to ease customers' worries from the time goods are imported from the point of origin to the time they arrive at their destinations, by putting in place a seamless structure.
It keeps costs low with transparent payments of duty, storage and demurrage charges.
"The Import Duty Finance solution ensures prompt payment of duty and other related costs; it unlocks working capital for the customer while ensuring timely delivery, as well as saves them from incurring high storage and demurrage charges," the company noted in a brief seen by Kenyans.co.ke.
The IDF product is among revamped offerings from Co-op Bank targeting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
A supply financing solution which allows suppliers to secure prompt payments after selling, by submitting their invoices, was also unveiled.
It allows buyers to access short-term credit that in turn optimizes their working capital.
"To the buyer, it ensures a constant supply of goods and a good business relationship with suppliers; To the supplier, in addition to the working capital, they are able to extend financial credit to buyers by using approved invoices as a form of surety and reduce the debtors’ days," the bank explained.
The revamped products target, among others, importers of motor vehicles and equipment, importers of second-hand items such as mitumba clothes, business people who import second-hand goods for resale and logistics firms.
“In the last two years, the bank expended a lot of resources on customer engagements and research work to understand the dynamics of this critical business segment and tailor-made the MSME package to make it more responsive to the needs of MSMEs. In the one year we have been rolling our revamped MSME offering to our customers and the public in general, the results have been positive.
"This year, we are now refining the product to target specific groups of MSMEs such as the import and export industry,” Co-operative Bank Head of Business Banking, Moses Gitau stated at the launch of the IDF product.