The 4th Conference of Partners of the WCO West and Central Africa Region (WCA) was held from 9 to 11 April 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria. Organized by the Office of the Vice-Chair for the WCA region (Mali Customs) in collaboration with the WCO Secretariat and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Conference had as its theme, “Partner mobilization around the priority projects of the WCO’s WCA region: a genuine pledge to meet the modernization goals and performance targets of Member Customs administrations”. The Conference was attended by more than 100 participants, including seven Directors General/Deputy Director General of Customs administrations from the WCA, representatives of development partners and international and regional organizations. All speakers expressed their gratitude for the partners’ contributions to the WCO and WCA region.

The speakers at the Conference’s opening, H.E. Olawale EDUN, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr. Ba ADENIYI, Comptroller General of the NCS, and Mr. Ebenezer Gebding TAFILI, WCO Deputy Director, Capacity Building Directorate, all expressed gratitude for the contributions of various development partners, which had been vital for the reform and modernization of Customs administrations of the WCA region against the backdrop of increasing expectations to deliver on national and regional development goals. H.E. EDUN stressed the urgent need to modernize Customs administrations in the WCO-WCA region to optimize trade facilitation, revenue mobilization and regional integration, particularly in the context of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) before officially declaring the Conference open.

In the ensuing three-day dialogue, moderated by the Vice-Chair of the WCO’s WCA (Director General of Mali Customs), assisted by the Comptroller General of NCS and Director General of Cameroun Customs, and the representative of the WCO Secretary General, the new WCO capacity-building paradigm, which focuses on a more collaborative and needs-based approach to capacity-building, was explained, and the WCO capacity-building activities in the Region were presented. The participating donors/partners (especially Japan Customs, Indian Customs, ITC, Importation and Customs Clearance Together group (IMPACCT) and Tradewater) presented their approaches and cooperation activities in the Region. For their part, the WCA Region presented regional-level and national-level projects, showing its priority on e-commerce, AI and data analytics, geospatial intelligence, digitalization, the interconnectivity of Customs IT systems, AEO, Time Release Studies (TRS), risk management, response to disasters and epidemics, human resource management, and Gender Equality and Diversity (GED). The Conference developed recommendations for the realization of prioritized projects.

All the participants expressed their appreciation to the Vice Chair for his leadership and the NCS for its warm hospitality, which enabled fruitful dialogue among the participants. Further discussions would be expected at the next Conference of Directors General of Customs of the WCA Region in May 2025.

For more information, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.