Alan Kyerematen, the Minister of Trade and Industry, has lauded the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) and thus, called for continuous improvement and upgrade of the ICUMS to make it robust and flexible to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness of revenue collection at the ports.
According to the Minister of Trade and Industry, continuous upgrades on ICUMS would help improve trade facilitation and aid the country to meet the changing dynamics of trade in the world.
Mr. Kyerematen noted that one of the biggest challenges the country faced with its trade facilitation system was the fragmented nature of the process of clearing goods with different service providers in the trade facilitation space.
“So, in 2017, the ruling government decided to review the entire trade facilitation regime and customs administration. It was clear to us that the different service providers working on different platforms did not augur well for efficiency in trade facilitation. So we took a decision to identify a globally advanced and knowledgeable company to develop an end-to-end system to facilitate effective and efficient trade facilitation.”
Alan Kyerematen
Mr. Kyerematen noted that as was associated with every new system, there were some teething challenges with the implementation of the system but now all those has been resolved. He mentioned some of the challenges, citing Ghanaians’ adaptation to the Uni-Pass system trade facilitation regime and appreciation of the system by the various stakeholders of the trade facilitation space as the main challenges. “But, today, we are celebrating ICUMS. As political leaders, we were convinced the Uni-Pass/ICUMS would work,” he stated.
The Initial Challenges
Mr Kyerematen stated that within the first three months of implementation of the ICUMS, in spite of the initial challenges, the revenues generated were enormous. He indicated that the system is being strengthened to make it more robust. The minister noted that the ICUMS were initially piloted at various border revenue collection points before being rolled out at the Tema and Airport where there were bulk cargoes.
The Minister made this known when speaking at a meeting with a six-member delegation from CUPIA at the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat in Accra.
The delegation is in the country to see at first hand the operations of the Integrated Customs Management Union System (ICUMS) being run by Ghana Link, a trade facilitation company, at the country’s ports. They were accompanied by the Executive Chairman of Ghana Link, Nick Danso Adjei, and some senior staff members.
Ghana Link in July 2018 signed an agreement with CUPIA of South Korea to develop the Uni-Pass National Single Window End-to-end trade facilitation system known in Ghana as the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) for the clearing of goods in the various ports and borders of the country.
The CUPIA team had earlier visited the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Reverend Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, and some senior officials of the Authority. Also, there was a six-member delegation from the Gambia Revenue Authority and Finance Ministry, who are in the country to study the country’s implementation of the Uni-Pass system.
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