By Kebba AF Touray
The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), participated in the 30th Meeting the Committee of Experts and the 31st Conference of the Directors General of the World Customs Organization of West and Central Africa Region (WCO-WCA).
The 31st Conference of the Directors General of the Western and Central Africa Region (WCO-WCA) concluded in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday 30th May 2025.
The two-day Conference which started on Thursday 29th May 2025, concluded on Friday 30th May 2025.
The GRA delegation was led by the Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr. Alhagie K. Mbye who deputised for the Commissioner General, Mr. Yankuba Darboe.
The Director General’s Conference was preceded by the 30th Meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Western and Central Africa Region (WCO-WCA) which took place from Monday 26thto Wednesday 28th May 2025.
This statutory meeting of Experts was organized by the Office of the Vice-Chair of the WCO-WCA Region under the auspices of the Director General of Customs of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The deliberations of this year’s meeting were centered around the theme: “For a Customs Service that delivers on its commitments in terms of efficiency, security and prosperity.”
The opening session of the Experts Meeting was chaired by the Director General of Malian Customs, Mr. Amadou Konate, current Vice-President of the WCO-WCA Region.
Both Vice President Mr. Konate and the DG of Customs of the Democratic Republic of Congo Mr. Bernard Kabese Musangu delivered welcome statements and encouraged participants to formulate recommendations from their deliberations which will facilitate the realisation of the theme of the by the Region.
Some of the highlights of the Experts Meeting include the following:
Presentation of activity report of Region
Consideration of policy issues
Review of budgetary and financial matters
Consideration of technical issues
Presentations by partners such as ECOWAS, IMPACCT, WEB FONTAINE, UNCTAD, STRATEGY OBJECT and HUAWEI.
At the end of the three-day deliberation, the Committee of Experts of the WCO-WCA Region made recommendations to the Director Generals of the Region for consideration.
The recommendations include but not limited following:
The update of the Regional Strategic Plan 2023-2027;
Strengthening of partnership with Development Partners;
Finalization of the development of Budgetary and Financial Procedure Manual of the Region;
Introduction of initiatives to strengthen Regional Structures;
Strengthening capacity building in areas of emerging technologies;
Fight against fraud, crime and terrorism;
Strict adherence to the rules in current Budgetary and Financial Procedure Manual during disbursement of Regional Funds;
Implementation of digital transformation initiatives within the Region; and
Overcome challenges of non-implementation of previous recommendations by Director Generals during the 30th Conference held in Bamako, Mali.
On Friday 30th May 2025, the Directors General reviewed and adopted some of the recommendations made by the Committee of Experts for implementation within the region.
On the same day, DGs made the following decision during their closed session; Determined the dates and location of the next statutory meetings of the DGs and Experts, and Elected the Vice President of the WCO-WCA Region, and appointed Regional representatives of the WCO.
The Conference closed on Friday 30th May 2025 with the reading of the final communique and closing remarks made by the WCO Secretary General, the Vice President of the WCO-WCA Region and the representative of the Minister of Finance of the DRC.
Out of 24 member countries of the Region, 20 countries were represented in this year’s statutory Conference and Meeting.
