Ghana Link Network and GRA Customs divisions retrain staff on new decentralization drives in ICUMS

AC Emmanuel Ohene, the Chairman of the ICUMS implementation team and also the Sector Commander of James Town Collections of Customs – Division of GRA, has disclosed that ongoing trainings at the Authority is meant to introduce new initiatives to both customs and forwarders and introduce decentralization drives  in ICUMS.

 Speaking to the media, he noted that the refresher training has become necessary to 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”.

Commenting on the significance of the training, he intimated that it is crucial as customs officers operating the ICUMS require novel skills and abilities to help reduce turnaround time.

More importantly, he was of the view that this will at the end of the day help government in achieving its target of improving its performance, especially the ease which comes with transacting business in the area of customs operation.

 The training organized by the Ghana Link Network Services Ltd. in partnership with Customs – Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA, is currently ongoing in the Northern part of Ghana. It is also expected to cover Northern, Savanah, and Upper East Regions by arming all stakeholders especially Customs officials and the freight forwarders in the designated area.

The training, which commenced 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.

Essentially, 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.

To help address questions and concerns during the course of the training, Messrs J. Agbaga and Johnny Mantey both Giff members on the ICUMS implementation team were present to engage all stakeholders at the training.

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.

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.