From 22 to 23 July 2020, experts from the WCO Secretariat and the WCO Regional Office for Capacity Building for West and Central Africa (ROCB-WCA) ran a major virtual workshop on Customs challenges in Guinea and Sub-Saharan Africa. This workshop followed up on a request to bring Expertise France in to assist the technical team of the Mission to Support the Mobilization of Internal Resources (MAMRI) in Guinea. MAMRI is a body that effectively reports to the Guinean Prime Minister’s Office with the task of supporting and speeding up the modernization of the fiscal authorities and other state financial authorities, the aim being to bring about a fast, strong boost to the mobilization of internal resources. It involves the main ministries dealing with the challenge of mobilizing and securing internal revenue (including the Minister for the Budget, the Minister for the Economy and Finance and the Minister for Mines and Geology).

The various sessions, conducted remotely from WCO Headquarters in Brussels and the ROCB-WCA in Abidjan, focused, among other things, on simplifying and going paperless in Customs clearance procedures, implementing new control methods, cooperating with national authorities in related areas, cooperating and sharing information with Customs of trading partner countries, rationalizing transit operations, integrity in Customs administrations, e-commerce and disaster procedures management. During the opening session, there were presentations on capacity building principles and programmes in the WCO and the activities of the ROCB-WCA.

By way of clarification, Expertise France is the French public agency responsible for the development and implementation of international technical cooperation projects, and it is supporting the Republic of Guinea in this capacity.

At the end of this workshop, the WCO expressed its satisfaction with its working relationship with Expertise France and strongly urged MAMRI and the Guinean Customs Administration to draw useful conclusions and launch relevant initiatives in favour of reforms on every front (facilitation, security, protection of society, etc.) with a view to improving the mobilization of Customs revenue. To ensure that greater account is taken of the strategic plan/action plan for Customs, developed with the support of the WCO, this work needs to be carried out in synergy with the unit responsible for Customs reform and also with the National Committee on Trade Facilitation. This exercise provided the opportunity to explore avenues for cooperation between the WCO and Expertise France in connection with our respective activities in support of Customs administrations.