The Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority GRA yesterday opened a two-day meeting of West and Central African regional experts.
The experts meeting hosted at the Bakadaji Hotel will prepare the ground for the 29th conference of Directors General of Customs of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and West and Central Africa (WCA) to be opened by President Adama Barrow tomorrow at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre.
“This conference offers an opportunity for our very competent experts to review our activities for the year and also accords us the means of looking into the future prospects of our organisations,” CG Yankuba Darboe said.
He said the outcomes of the experts meeting will be tabled before the Directors General conference tomorrow.
The conference attended by delegates from The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Gabon, Benin, Senegal, Mali and other West and Central countries is organised under the theme; “Nurturing the next generation by promoting a culture of knowledge sharing and professional pride in customs.”
CG Darboe said the importance of promoting the culture of knowledge sharing and leveraging on technology in line with the WCO Modernisation Plan validated last year, cannot be over emphasised.
“It is not just a mere case of supporting the next generation to sustain the legacy of customs’ evolution and innovations but also a typical case of guiding them to deal with the prejudices, uncertainties and fears characterising the international trade and supply chain,” he said.
This, he added, clearly demonstrates that the WCO placed capacity building at the heart of its transformation agenda.
He said the experts’ session will explore and review the evaluation and implementation of the recommendations of previous Directors General meetings.
Bebe Anyanwuu, a representative of the WCO-WCA, commended the GRA for hosting the event and paving the way in knowledge sharing in the region.
He stressed on areas of securing the regional borders that are faced with a series of challenges such as terrorism, banditry and other criminal activities.
