A delegation from the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) recently participated in the 31st Conference of the Director Generals of the Western and Central Africa Region (WCO-WCA) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The GRA delegation was led by the Commissioner of Customs & Excise, Alhagie K Mbye who deputised for the Commissioner General, 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 started from Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 May 2025.
The statutory meeting of Experts was organised by the WCO-WCA. 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 and current vice-President of the WCO-WCA Region, Amadou Konate. Mr Konate and the DG of Customs of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bernard Kabese Musangu welcomed the guests.
The highlights of the Experts Meeting include; presentation of activity report of the 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 two-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; update of the Regional Strategic Plan 2023-2027, strengthening of partnership with development partners, finalisation of the development of a budgetary and financial Procedure Manual of the Region.
It also envisages to strengthen capacity building in areas of emerging technologies, fight against fraud, crime and terrorism.
