Five (5) Customs administrations in East Africa, namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, organized its Regional Joint Coordinating Committee (RJCC) meeting of the “Project on Capacity Development for Trade Facilitation and Border Control in East Africa (TF & BC Project)” virtually on 26 May 2021. This Project is implemented by the five Customs administrations with the support jointly extended by the WCO and JICA. With the aims at improving efficiency of border procedures and enhancing border control, the five Customs administrations have made continuous collaborative efforts over the last 3.5 years under the Project on (1) effective One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) operation, and (2) Customs capacity building on three areas, namely (i) risk management (RM), (ii) post clearance audit (PCA), and (iii) Program Global Shield (PGS). The RJCC meeting was organized to confirm the achievement made through the Project particularly on Customs capacity building component, which is to be completed in June 2021.
The meeting was hosted by the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) and was attended by the Commissioners General, Commissioners Customs and other senior officials from the five Customs administrations, the WCO, JICA and Japan Customs. The WCO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Ricard Trevino, represented the WCO and addressed at the Opening session. He introduced the 3P concept, “Political will”, “People” and “Partnership”, for the Customs capacity building and stressed the importance on the use of “People” domesticated in East Africa, such as Master Trainers (MTs), for Customs modernization.
The RJCC meeting reviewed the achievement made by the Project and noted the completion of the Master Trainer Programme (MTP) with eighteen (18) MTs on PCA who successfully completed the program. The meeting also took note of the excellent outcome from the “PGS Operation East Africa” which was conducted in March 2021 where more than 8.5 metric tons of precursor chemicals and a various kind of drugs were seized. It was particularly noted that, as a result of support offered jointly by the WCO, JICA and Japan Customs through MTP, more than 100 MTs on a variety of key Customs subjects are now pooled in East Africa and roughly 20 000 Customs officers and private sector stakeholders have benefitted from their quality training over the last 3.5 years in East Africa. The participants commended the good achievements made by the Project for contributing to sustainable development of East Africa and expressed their appreciation to the WCO, JICA and Japan Customs for the continued quality support offered.
The WCO and JICA are currently discussing to renew their cooperation agreement for continuing and further expanding their collaborative support and reaffirmed their commitment of support for the Customs administrations in East Africa.
For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org