On 1 and 2 March 2022, at the invitation of Mr. Yankuba Darboe, the Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), visited Banjul, Gambia to exchange views on the progress regarding Customs reform and meet with political leaders.
At the GRA headquarters, Dr. Mikuriya was briefed by the GRA management team on the recent progress in Customs modernization, including the ongoing migration of the IT system from ASYCUDA ++ to the World version.
After exchanging with Customs, Secretary General Mikuriya met with Mr. Mambury Njie, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, who expressed his satisfaction with Customs’ performance and shared his expectations for further modernization by using WCO tools and programmes.
Dr Mikuriya went on to meet with H.E Dr. Isatou Touray, Vice President of the Republic of Gambia, who expressed, on behalf of the President, the strong support of the government for the continuous improvement of the GRA. She highlighted the importance of supporting trade to enhance economic development. Secretary General Mikuriya thanked the Vice-President for supporting Customs through the judicious spending of the financial resources to demonstrate how Customs and Tax revenue collections contributed to develop infrastructure and improve government services. He added that her effective leadership, together with Ms. Lucy Fye-Jagne, the chairperson of the GRA Board of Directors, is inspiring, and goes in line with the work of the WCO on the topic of Gender Equality and Diversity.
Dr. Mikuriya also took the opportunity to visit the border post of Jiboroh, an important installation connecting the Gambian town with the Southern Senegal. He witnessed the good cooperation existing with other government agencies which were all housed in the Customs post. He also visited the border post of Seléty on the Senegalese side and took note of the excellent Customs cooperation between Gambia and Senegal. He stated that this type of collaboration is necessary to ensure connectivity at borders as a basis for the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The Delegation visited the compound of the Jah Oil Company in Gambia to highlight the importance of customs-business partnership.