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Testimonial - Liberia Customs Modernisation

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Reduction in days to obtain release of goods - From 30 to under four days

Reduction in procedures to clear customs - From 14 to nine

Streamlined customs processes can help encourage cross-border and international trade. By stimulating new business opportunities, robust customs systems can help enhance competitivity and ensure greater compliance.

The government of Liberia decided to improve its customs system by automating the manual clearance process and the Ministry of Finance approached ICF for funding. An electronic platform was introduced, computerising the manual paperwork system and basic computer training provided on the new systems for 110 customs employees in the Customs House and Port of Monrovia.

Before ICF intervention, clearing customs was a manual process and, with approximately 30 different steps, took a very long time to complete. The electronic system has reduced the number of procedures to just nine, and now it takes an average of under four days instead of 30 to obtain the release of goods from the Freeport of Monrovia from the time application is submitted.

Decontee King-Sackie, Commissioner of Customs in Liberia said: “The project has seen tremendous reductions in the time and costs of clearing customs in Monrovia, with significant benefits to businesses. We hope that over the next few years we will roll out improvements to all 17 customs centres in Liberia. We want to do more work with ICF in the future. ICF is more effective than other donors because it is focused on specific areas. I would suggest other institutions identify exactly what they want to achieve in terms of their investment climates – business registration, customs etc. Then they should look into what other countries are doing and approach ICF for funding. The demand must come from the country - then ICF will help them implement.”