The WCO has successfully organized a national workshop on data analysis for the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA). A total of more than sixty ZRA officers, including the Commissioner of Customs, participated in the workshop, which was held from 21 to 25 November 2022 in Lusaka, Zambia. Data analytics is a key overarching priority for ZRA; hence the mission was to enhance the Administration’s efforts to improve its data analytics capabilities strategically and technically.
The mission was co-delivered based on technical collaboration between the “Trade Facilitation and Customs Modernization Programme for Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Sida-WCO TFCM Programme) funded by the Government of Sweden, and the WCO BACUDA (Bands of Customs Data Analytics) initiative, financed by the Customs Cooperation Fund of Korea (CCF-Korea). BACUDA is a capacity building project between Customs authorities and data scientists to develop data analysis methods. Noting that ZRA is pursuing a strategy to ultimately be a data-driven organisation in discharging its mandate, the mission was critical in fostering the strategy for building a data ecosystem in ZRA and enhancing the technical capacities of the staff.
Following preliminary engagements with ZRA and assessments, an agenda tailored to the needs of the organization was developed. Highly requested topics such as data quality, data governance, and advanced data analytics were addressed at the workshop. Experts from the BACUDA Expert Group and BACUDA scholars from the Uganda Revenue Authority and Tanzania Revenue Authority delivered a series of insightful presentations on their experiences in data analytics. In addition, the Korea Customs Service presented its Big Data strategy and FINDER models used to detect networks of high-risk passengers and cargo.
The workshop emphasized the importance of data standardization and integration to achieve data quality and resolved to make it a priority for ZRA. The best-case data warehouse system was presented, and recommendations were made to enhance the ZRA’s current data warehouse.
As the first event of its kind, the WCO included hands-on sessions in which participants were invited to try out Python code using the Google Colaboratory platform. This platform ensures that no additional installation of other programs is required and that the processing limitations of Personal Computers can be bypassed, as processing takes place on external servers. In addition, other hands-on sessions on data cleaning and creating a LITE-DATE model for fraud detection particularly resonated with the trainees as they learned about the benefits of Python programming in the data analysis process.
The experiences of scholarship graduates from Uganda and Tanzania in fostering a data culture and applying an Artificial Intelligence (AI) module to the Time Release Study were shared. Furthermore, the flagship algorithms of BACUDA, AI HS, DATE, and their implementation were presented, which attracted significant interest from the participants.
The Sida-WCO TFM Programme and BACUDA initiative look forward to working jointly to drive the WCO commitment to building data analytics capacity for members, both strategically and technically, according to Members’ needs, as numerous requests are received and interest grows.
For more information, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.