From 1 to 5 May 2023, the Ethiopian Customs Commission (ECC) hosted WCO risk management experts at their headquarters in Addis-Ababa. The experts worked together with ECC to contribute towards one of EEC’s objectives under the WCO A-CIP Programme, ‘’Risk management capacity strengthened”. This priority is driven by the need to increase the use of automated and dynamic risk management systems and consolidate risk management competencies (including building analytical skills) amongst all internal technical areas and is in line with the Reform and Modernization key factor of the WCO Revised Arusha Declaration.

During the week, a series of meetings were held between WCO risk management experts and representatives from the ECC Risk Management, Post Clearance Audit, Authorized Economic Operators and Intelligence teams. There were presentations and discussions on the use of data, cooperation between the different teams and the available IT systems. The purpose was to establish the processes regarding ECC work on risk management and identify areas for improvement. Special attention was given to the eCMS system, the ECC clearance system, which contains modules for risk management, risk analysis and the offence register, among other modules. The approach uses fixed risk criteria to scan every incoming declaration in the system. It has proved to be a successful tool in enhancing revenue collection.

A final meeting was held with Mr. Azizew Chanie Abebe, Deputy Commissioner of the Customs Operations Division and other officials. Everyone expressed gratitude for a week full of fruitful meetings and open and rewarding discussions. Since this mission was mainly about fact finding, the participants ended the week hoping for further cooperation between the ECC and the WCO in the field of risk management in support of their reform and modernization initiatives to promote integrity within the institution.

The WCO A-CIP Programme is currently supporting more than 20 WCO Member administrations, with funding from Norad and Canada. For more information, please contact: capacity.building@wcomod.org.