Ghana Link and Customs Division of GRA retrain stakeholders on ICUMS

The Ghana Link Network Services Ltd. in collaboration with Customs – Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA, have begun another round of refresher training for users of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS).

The training, which is currently ongoing in the Northern part of Ghana, is expected to cover Northern, Savanah, and Upper East Regions, equipping all stakeholders especially Customs officials and the freight forwarders in the designated area.

After almost four months of deployment nationwide, the ICUMS implementation Committee and Ghana Link, the technical services provider put together the training programme to help retrain and update stakeholders using the system on enhancements and new additions.

The training, which kick-started on Monday October 19, 2020, at the Tamale collection of the Customs – Division of GRA office, is to cover all regimes within customs.

After the Northern part of Ghana, it will be taken to all other customs collections and Freight forwarders operational areas in Ghana.

The Chairman of the ICUMS implementation team and also the Sector Commander of James Town Collections of Customs – Division of GRA, AC Emmanuel Ohene, who spoke to the media disclosed that, the refresher training has become necessary to help update and also bring users of the ICUMS up to speed with new developments in the system.

“We are doing this to introduce new initiatives to both customs and freight forwarders, educate especially Customs officers on the new decentralization drives in ICUMS. We are currently spending 10-days in the Northern part of Ghana, and will move to other areas of the country.”

“We will share new dates and times of the other areas with the stakeholders as soon as they are set,” he said.

He added that the training had become necessary as the customs officers operating the ICUMS needed to have their skills sharpened to help reduce the turnaround time and more importantly help the government to achieve its target of improving its performance on the ease of doing business ranking by the World Bank in the area of customs operations.

The team from Tamale will be visiting Tatale, Yendi, Bunkprugu, Wonjuga, all in the Northern and North East Regions, and from there, head to Bolga, Paga, Kulungugu and Pulimakom in the Savanah and Upper East Regions, to train personnel and other stakeholders before heading down south.

Other members of the ICUMS implementation team that travelled with the Chairman, AC Emmanuel Ohene, were Messrs S. Owusu Ansah, Jalil Abdulrahman and Dixon Kodua all of Customs.

Messrs J. Agbaga and Johnny Mantey both Giff members on the ICUMS implementation team to help in addressing the concerns and questions that may come up during the training and other engagements with the stakeholders.

Ghana Link Network Services Ltd, in partnership with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, spearheaded the implementation of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) under the framework of the UNIPASS solution, an end-to-end trade facilitation, cargo inventory management, security protection and Revenue enhancement solution.

In order for a country to facilitate trade, maximize and ultimately optimize revenue collection as well as ensure safety and security at the borders, it needs a comprehensive and modern trade facilitation solution to manage these functions effectively and efficiently, which solution is the ICUMS which has been deployed nationwide since June 1, 2020.