Technical Committee On Interconnection of ECOWAS Customs Systems Meets in Ouagadougou

24 November 2011
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Lome — The Technical Committee on the interconnection of ECOWAS computerized customs systems began a three-day meeting on Monday, 21st November 2011 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to among other tasks, consider the project document and review the manual of procedures of the regional computerized transit system. The meeting of experts from Member States and regional organizations is part of activities for the implementation of the roadmap for the regional interconnection project of the ECOWAS Customs adopted by a meeting of Experts and Directors-General held 27th June to 1st July 2011 in Lome, Togo.

According to the Acting Director of the ECOWAS Community Computer Centre (CCC), Osei Tutu Agyeman-Duah, the technical committee session, preceding the meetings of Directors and sector Ministers Thursday and Friday this week respectively, in the Burkinabe capital, will also develop an action plan for the implementation and monitoring of the interconnection project. Welcoming the participants, he traced the conception of the project to the fundamental changes introduced by ECOWAS to Custom services in the region through computerization in the 1980s. In his opening address, the Director-General of Burkina Faso's Customs, Mr. Ousmane Guiro, described computerized transit as pivotal to interconnection, adding that it will enable land-locked countries and those on the coast to track their trade flows. "It will also help fight commercial fraud and secure customs revenues which contribute immensely to our countries' budgets," he said, adding that computerized transit would also help generate reliable budget statistics.

In a recent Convention, the World Customs Organisation (WCO) underscored the urgent need for customs administrations to interconnect in order to facilitate and secure international trade, and to also reduce or eliminate impediments to improved living conditions of populations. In addition, the Ouagadougou meeting has been informed by the new ECOWAS vision for an integrated customs administration system for its Member States, which led to the adoption of various protocols, such as the inter-State road transit system to regulate and harmonize export procedures in the region. The meeting is organised in partnership with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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