In support of its broader Customs capacity building agenda, the WCO in partnership with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) organized a Leadership and Management Development (LMD) Workshop in Accra, Ghana from December 9 to 20, 2013 for 20 senior managers of the Authority. The overall objective of the 10-day interactive workshop was to strengthen senior management capacities to lead and drive reforms within a Customs modernization agenda.

In his opening remarks Mr. George Blankson, Commissioner General of GRA, emphasized the importance of leadership and management development for GRA. He invited the participants to take full advantage of the workshop and to become the future engineers of GRA’s many reform and modernization initiatives.

The workshop brought together a diverse group of senior managers from GRA’s Customs, domestic tax and corporate services divisions. Throughout the workshop many of the current and future challenges of the GRA were discussed, while participants increased their personal self-awareness through facilitated discussions in areas such as visioning, strategic management, effective delegation, people management and communications. The workshop also established new foundations for stronger teamwork and co-operation between senior managers of the different divisions of the GRA.

For many of the participants the workshop turned out to be not only insightful and practical, but a real first step towards a positive change in their leadership and management approaches, especially in the areas of effective communication, personal leadership and influencing others. In the words of one participant, "This workshop helped me to focus on myself; how to understand myself and how to manage people around me, my team, Customs and GRA as a whole".

The event was held in the context of the Customs Capacity Enhancement for Sub Saharan Africa project and was funded with the generous support of the World Bank’s Trade Facilitation Facility. For more information on the WCO Leadership and Management Development Programme, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.