Under the auspices of the WCO-INAMA project (funded by Sweden, US Department of State, GiZ and the CITES Secretariat) the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) received support from the WCO in strengthening its intelligence function. The primary objective of this activity was to enhance the Intelligence capacity of the Zambia Customs administration to collect, process and disseminate intelligence with a focus on illegal trade in endangered species.

This support was provided through a WCO experts’ mission to the ZRA headquarters in Lusaka, held from 12th to 16th December 2016.

The mission started with a meeting with the Commissioner for the Customs Services of ZRA, Mr. Dingani C. Banda. The Commissioner stressed the importance of using intelligence in Customs.

The support focused on revising the draft strategic intelligence framework of ZRA and on developing a detailed work plan to strengthen the Intelligence function. A working group, composed by personnel from the ZRA, was set up to implement this project.

On the final day of the mission, the project manager appointed by the ZRA for the process of strengthening the Intelligence function presented the work done during the mission to the Commissioner for the Customs Services, who expressed his wholehearted support for this new initiative as well as his commitment to the implementation of the work plan.

This mission was funded by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GiZ).

For more information about this mission and the WCO-INAMA Project, please contact the WCO-INAMA project manager, Marco Foddi (marco.foddi@wcoomd.org).