ECA's
Information Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA) through
the Development Information Services Division (DISD) has
launched the final training module in the first phase of
the series of capacity building activities for officials
of the Ethiopian Customs Authority.
This training programme is geared toward supporting the
implementation and sustainability of IT systems for which
it is being upgraded. The program is divided into three
phases. The first phase is aimed at building the skills
of the customs officers in supporting computer hardware,
operating systems and networking. The second aims at building
the skills of the customs officers in web, database and
application development technologies. The third phase will
introduce IT project management and Geoinformation Services
(GIS) tools for better tracking of goods and services.
This training programme that has been running for more than
a year, following a request from the Government of Ethiopia
to build the capacity of the staff of the Ethiopian Customs
Authority to "effectively implement and maintain an
UNCTAD-created Automated System for Customs Data",
commonly known as ASYCUDA. The system handles manifests,
customs declarations, accounting, and transit and suspense
procedures and also generates trade data that can be used
for statistical economic analysis. In addition, it provides
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between traders and customs.
The training programme is designed to enhance greater efficiency
and effectiveness of the Customs Authority. To date more
than 35 customs officers have been trained in at least three
of the five modules of the first phase.
Effective
use of the ASYCUDA programme as a trade facilitation tool
by Ethiopian customs officials will among other things ensure
efficiency in revenue collection and accurate and timely
report generation on import and export trade, which is used
for statistical economic analysis.
The
trainees come from various customs ports throughout the
country, including Kombolcha in the Amhara region, Dire
Dawa administration, Mekelle in the Tigray region, Nazret
in the Oromia region, Jijiga in the Somali region, Moyale
in the Oromia region, and Addis Ababa's two customs ports
at Lagare and the Airport, respectively.
The
participants reiterated that the courses they have taken
so far will help contribute towards their skills development
in the implementation and sustainability of the ASYCUDA
system.
One
participant, who is a senior systems supervisor, Tigiste
Yigletu said, "since more than nine stations are connected
to the central server located at Dembel City Center through
the network, the course is very relevant for enriching our
skills."
Another,
Ephrem Bezabeh, a systems supervisor from Addis Ababa said,
" The training contributes a lot, because ASYCUDA implementation
needs a knowledge of how to implement and configure devices
that are important to connect local and wide area networks."
The
data processing team leader Ms. Kassech Gebre Medhin added,
"This course has a major contribution to the implementation
and sustainability of ASYCUDA, given that almost all of
the staff in the IT department are on this course."
For
more details, contact: gdessalegn@uneca.org
