Ghana Link Network Services Ltd and the Ghana Revenue Authority Customs–Division of have begun refresher training for users of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS).

The training, which is currently ongoing in the Northern part of Ghana, is expected to cover Northern, Savanah, and Upper East Regions, equipping stakeholders, especially Customs officials and freight forwarders in the designated area.

After almost four months of deployment nationwide, the ICUMS implementation Committee and Ghana Link the technical services provider put together the training programme to help retrain and update stakeholders using the system on enhancements and new additions.

The training, which started on Monday October 19, 2020 at the Tamale collection of the Customs–Division of GRA office, would cover all regimes within customs.

The training would be taken to all other customs collections and freight forwarders operational areas after the one in the Northern Sector.

The Chairman of the ICUMS implementation team and also the Sector Commander of James Town Collections of Customs–Division of GRA Assistant Commissioner Emmanuel Ohene said the refresher training was necessary to help update and to bring users of the ICUMS up to speed with new developments in the system.

"We are doing this to introduce new initiatives to both customs and freight forwarders, educating especially Customs officers on the new decentralization drives in ICUMS. We are currently spending 10 days in the Northern part of Ghana and will move to other areas of the country."

"We will share new dates and times of the other areas with the stakeholders as soon as they are set," he said.

He said the customs officers operating the ICUMS needed to have their skills sharpened to help reduce the turnaround time and more importantly help the government to achieve its target of improving its performance on the ease of doing business ranking by the World Bank in the area of customs operations.

The team from Tamale will be visiting Tatale, Yendi, Bunkprugu, Wonjuga all in the Northern and North East Regions and then to Bolgatanga, Paga, Kulungugu and Pulimakom in the Savanah and Upper East regions to train personnel and other stakeholders before heading down south.

Other members of the ICUMS implementation team on the trip were Mr S. Owusu Ansah, Jalil Abdulrahman and Dixon Kodua of Customs. Mr J. Agbaga and Mr Johnny Mantey both members of the Ghana Institution of Freight Forwarders on the ICUMS implementation team to help in addressing the concerns and questions that may come up during the training and engagements with the stakeholders.

Ghana Link Network Services Ltd in partnership with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority spearheaded the implementation of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) under the framework of the UNIPASS solution, an end-to-end trade facilitation, cargo inventory management, security protection and Revenue enhancement solution.

The ICUMS was deployed nationwide on June 1, 2020.