By Kebba AF Touray
The sub-regional bloc called Economic Community of West African States, better known for its acronyms ECOWAS, has taken giant steps to strengthen bilateral trade and regional automated transit. This was advanced by the regional interface that was recently organised in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
The Gambian participants successfully attended two meetings, namely ECOWAS regional meeting on Free Movement of Goods, and ECOWAS Automated Regional Transit Regime, concurrently held in Abuja.
Being a Member State, The Gambia was represented at the regional events by top officials from the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, namely Mr. Alagie K. Mbye, GRA Deputy Commissioner, Technical Support and Monitoring Unit, Mr. Musa Saidykhan-GRA Deputy Director and Mr. Aziz Balla Gaye of the Trade Ministry.
The two meetings were organized by ECOWAS from the 11th to 15th November 2019.
The first meeting focused on free movement of goods under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, while the second meeting was on ECOWAS automated regional transit.
Speaking to Mansa Banko Online upon his return, Mr. Alagie Mbye, summed up the region interfaces as “a success” and noting that the SIGMA Project would guarantee the automation of the ECOWAS Transit Corridors and harmonize it customs systems through regional connection and interface.
He added: “This is considered a giant stride in our integration efforts. I congratulate the management of GRA for the team work and commitment that has paid dividends in the operation of this latest technology”.
Mbye explained that the SIGMAT system, which supports advanced information on transit goods, is meant to facilitating customs data exchange between multiple customs administrations. He went on to say this provide an integrated customs IT solution with the objective of ensuring a faster processing of transit goods across member states, as well as enhancing trade across the region.
“The establishment of an automated transit regime in the community calls for a new legal text which supports the electronic environment and provide the legal basis for the full implementation of SIGMAT in member states”, he told this medium.
He further stated that the objectives of the meetings, entailed evaluating the implementation of SIGMAT and identify challenges with the view to proposing corrective measures; reviewing the road-map for the deployment of SIGMAT in other member states; presenting the draft text on the community automated transit of goods and discuss the establishment of a regional guaranteed mechanism.
