The cooperation between the Customs Administration of Guinea and the World Customs Organization (WCO) has made significant progress. From 20 to 24 September 2016, two WCO experts have conducted a scoping mission to Conakry in the framework of the West African Customs Administrations Modernization (WACAM) Project, which is financed by the government of Sweden.

This mission is a response to the Guinea Customs request for Capacity Building support in the field of Stakeholder Engagement and Fight against Fraud as well as Trade facilitation. During the mission, many consultations took place with key stakeholders involved in the fight against Fraud and Trade facilitation in the Customs Head quarter as well as the Airport in Conakry and the Conakry port. The parties involved include border agencies (Border police, gendarmerie, the CITES national contact point, the central office against drug abuse, the airport manager, the port manager…) as well as the inspection company and representatives from the freight forwarder and the chamber of commerce.

In order to stress the importance that the Guinean authorities attribute to the modernization of public administrations, the minister of finance, Dr. Mohamed L. Doumbouya, received the Director of Customs, Colonel Zézé Oubou Guilavogui and the WCO delegation in his Cabinet. At this occasion, the minister outlined that the government’s priority lie with the fight against fraud and to position Guinea commercially and logistically in the sub- region.

As a result of this mission and the consultations, the WCO and the customs have outlined the WACAM project support for Guinea for the upcoming 18 months. For further information on this mission and the WACAM project in general, please feel free to contact the WCO - Sweden Programme Director, M. Richard Chopra - richard.chopra@wcoomd.org.