ECTN & ACD Rejection Data: Who Gets Rejected, Why, and What It Costs

ECTN & ACD Rejection Data: Who Gets Rejected, Why, and What It Costs

Most guidance on cargo tracking notes is generic. This isn’t. As the authorized agent and platform operator for multiple African destinations, we analysed 66,000+ real ECTN/ACD filings across Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia to answer three questions no competitor can: who gets rejected, why, and what it actually costs.

The finding: the first time is where it goes wrong

Across every country, first-time filers are rejected far more often than experienced ones — and it isn’t close:

Destination	Filings analysed	First-time filers	Experienced filers	The gap
Djibouti ECTN	35,489	5.5% rejected	0.4%	14× more
Sudan ACD	27,128	13.5% rejected	2.2%	6× more
Somalia CTN	3,785	3.0% rejected	0.5%	6× more

It doesn’t settle down quickly. On Sudan filings, even the 2nd–5th shipment is rejected around 8.6% of the time; only after hundreds of filings does it fall below 1%. Experience is earned at scale — and it’s the single biggest predictor of whether your certificate clears.

What a rejection actually costs

Not the fee — the time. A clean filing is validated fast; one that hits a rejection loop takes roughly twice as long and, in the worst cases, stretches past 8–13 days. The certificate reference has to be on the Bill of Lading before the vessel sails, so a rejection doesn’t just mean redoing paperwork — it can mean missing the deadline, demurrage, penalties at the port, or cargo held on arrival.

The mistakes behind almost every rejection

The same handful of expert-level details cause the overwhelming majority of rejections across all destinations:

• Certificate of Origin not stamped/signed by the authority (the #1 cause in Sudan)
• Bill of Lading mismatch — draft vs. carrier-issued, or details that don’t match
• Missing insurance value on CIF/CIP shipments
• Wrong shipment type (RORO, LCL, Genco, FCL)
• Incorrect values — freight mixed into goods value
• Vessel / voyage number mismatch

Country deep-dives

• Why Sudan ACD certificates get rejected — and who most →
• Why Djibouti ECTN certificates get rejected — and who most →
• Why Somalia CTN certificates get rejected — and who most →

The takeaway

The mistakes are avoidable — if you know to look for them. That knowledge is exactly what an authorized agent who has processed tens of thousands of filings brings. Don’t learn on your own shipment: send your documents to sck@scktr.com and we’ll catch the problems before they cost you a rejection — or a vessel deadline.

Methodology: figures are drawn from 66,402 ECTN/ACD filings processed via SCK Representation’s platforms for Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia (as of July 2026). SCK Representation is an authorized agent for these declarations.