Nairobi, Aug. 20 -- A container travelling from the Port of Mombasa to Kampala still leaves behind a long paper trail of invoices, multiple payment gateways and days of reconciling fees between clearing agents, transporters and banks. The result is tied-up working capital, limited transparency and higher costs that are eventually passed on to consumers.

This challenge dominated discussions at the recent East Africa Logistics, Warehousing and e-Commerce Conference and Expo in Nairobi, where policymakers, industry leaders and innovators agreed on one thing: East Africa's supply chains have reached a turning point, and artificial intelligence (AI) and digital finance can help remove long-standing inefficiencies.

Today, a clearing agent in ...