Nigeria will host a conference of the World Customs Organization (WCO) for the West and Central Africa sub-regions here Wednesday, officials said Monday.
A total of 24 customs administrators from West and Central Africa, over 100 international delegates and five international organizations would attend the event, according to Wale Adeniyi, spokesperson of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).
He said before the conference, there would be an experts’ workshop will be held on Monday to discuss a regional plan to modernize customs procedures and enhance collaborations among customs administrations.
Adeniyi said the issue of donors would be discussed at the conference, listing the donor agencies to include the World Bank, African Development Bank, UK AID, ECOWAS and ECCAS. Adeniyi also disclosed that there would be elections of principal offices of Directors of World Customs Organization in June, 2015.
He said as a region, there was the need for the members of the region to come together and take a position on the candidates to be elected. The spokesman said the NCS would use the forthcoming conference to showcase its progress in implementing the Pre-arrival Assessment Report (PAR) as a tool of trade facilitation. The conference was initially scheduled to hold in March but was postponed due to the general elections.
