APA-Dakar (Senegal)
This tool aims to simplify the formalities for the collection of goods at the port of Dakar in line with the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation.
By Abdourahmane Diallo
“A big step towards efficiency and innovation,” according to the designers of the Single Dematerialized Collection Desk (Guichet unique dématérialisé de l’enlèvement – GUDE, developed jointly by the Port Autonome de Dakar, the General Directorate of Customs and the Community of Port Stakeholders (CAP).
The designers explained that GUDE is an essential component of the digital transformation of the entire customs clearance process, with an ORBUS one-stop shop for pre-clearance formalities in operation since 2004; a robust customs clearance system (Gaïndé Intégral) at the heart of the process, in operation by the customs service since 1990 with successive waves of modernization and now, downstream, a one-stop shop that takes over from customs clearance to the availability of goods at the trader’s premises.
“This new dematerialization of collection procedures will save time and resources for operators, while helping to reduce costs for the state and consumers. This step forward will also make operations more predictable,” said Makhtar Lakh, Secretary General of the Ministry of Trade, Consumer Affairs and Small and Medium Enterprises. He was speaking this Monday, January 29 in Dakar at an information workshop on the generalization of GUDE.
The deployment of the solution, which has been in force since January 2 this year, will be extended to all players from February 1. The initial focus will be on containers, as port congestion is closely linked to this type of packaging. Over the next three months, it will be extended to conventional, transit, export, transfers to customs areas outside the port of Dakar, and then, around the last quarter, to air and cross-border shipments.
“The aim of this initiative is to synchronize all customs clearance activities within a secure, dematerialized platform, thus enabling faster and more competitive operations,” explains Ibrahima Nour Eddine Diagne, General Administrator of Gaïndé 2000.
According to Colonel Hamidou Ndiaye, Director of Intelligence, Risk and Value Analysis at the General Directorate of Customs, this dematerialization is part of an overall vision to transform operations in order to increase revenue, while simplifying procedures for economic operators.
“In just a few days, the customs administration has been able to generate revenues of around 6 billion a day thanks to this tool,” said Colonel Ndiaye.
GUDE involves digital collaboration between freight forwarders, the customs administration, consignees, handlers, carriers, the Port Autonome de Dakar, the Chamber of Commerce and shippers.
This ecosystem will not only generate efficiency for all players, but also a new economy that will enable not only the intermediary trades to reinvent themselves around new added value, but also logistics to modernize and offer new job prospects to young people.
ARD/te/lb/GIK/APA
Senegal launches one-stop dematerialized collection service (GUDE)
