The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission recently launched the e-certificate of origin to facilitate cross border trade among communities and reduce associated fraud.
The Commission while speaking at the launch event in Lagos said the e-certificate of origin piloted by four member states including Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ovoire and Senegal will enable the seamless creation of regional value chain to enhance trade, help custom officials keep accurate track of goods and reduce associated fraud, duplication and forgery through automation.
Salufou Tiemtore, Director, custom of custom, union and taxation represented the ECOWAS commissioner for economic affairs. While delivering his keynote speech, he stated that the certificate “will help to ensure that eligible goods follow criteria of origin to really harness free trade and enjoy the structure of international trade.’ and reduce fraudulent activities and forgery.
According to him, “Year in, year out in Africa, the procedure for certificate of origin is done on paper giving rise to fraudulent activities. We noticed fraudulent activities being used in advantage of trade liberalization which pose obstacles to flow of goods. To avoid this,
ECOWAS decided to use I.T to secure an automated certificate of origin and reduce obstacles to free trade.
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He acknowledged the commitment of the African Development Bank, World Customs organisation, AFCTA and others for their contribution in the success of sanitizing the process of goods flow through the digitisation of the certificate of origin.
Declaring the launch, the commissioner urged member states that are yet to queue into the digitisation to ensure they join the recent development.
Aissata Kodfi, head of division, Customs, ECOWAS who doubled as project lead for the e-certificate of origin speaking on the project said it was born out of the need to facilitate free movement of community goods in West Africa.
“Instead of solving these problems the same way, we decided to automate the flow of community goods to ensure we will not have paper requests but electronic requests.”
Meanwhile, she disclosed that a technical world crew was put in place in 2019 from Ghana, Senegal, Cote D’ivoire and Nigeria including custom officers and IT colleagues
She added that inorder to benefit from preferential treatment as an exporter, the exporter needs to get the certificate of origin with a stamp from the custom.
Nafiu Isiyaku, Comptroller, Trade Facilitation, Custom headquarters Abuja said the automation of the certificate of origin is crucial to tackle fraud, duplication and forgery while reducing other barriers to trade across West Africa
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