Dakar, February 11th, 2020 – The King Fhad Palace Hotel in Dakar hosted today a landmark presentation and training session on two top-notch tools developed by ModelSis (eTransit and VALOREM) for Senegalese customs as part of the Import Verification Program (PVI, 2014 – 2019).
Presidium
The ceremony was attended by the Customs IT Director (DSID), the Regulation and International Cooperation Director (DRCI), ModelSis Managing Director, the chairman of the Senegalese Union of Clearing and Transport Companies (USETTA) and the chairman of the Clearing Agents Disciplinary Committee (CDCDS).
Over 200 representatives of clearing companies took part in this event that also saw the participation of several stakeholders of the supply chain (economic operators, transport companies, shipping agents, etc.).
Sharing seminar on customs valuation and transit management platforms (King Fahd Palace, Dakar)
The session started with the presentation of the issue concerning transactional value by retired Colonel and Project Manager Ousmane MBENGUE who gave the audience a lecture on customs valuation, with a focus on the Declaration of Valuation Elements (DEV) that will henceforth be made available to the verification officers, as recommended by the WTO Valuation Code.
This presentation aroused many exchanges, which is indicative of the participants’ interest in the forthcoming commissioning of the systems that will undoubtedly bring value in terms of reliability of data and statistics, swiftness of operations and security and optimization of customs duty collection.
Taking over, Commandant Abdou THIAM of Customs IT Department unveiled all the functions of the system dubbed VALOREM, notably the interface intended for clearing agents, the majority of whom expressed satisfaction with what they termed as a breakthrough in the modernization of customs procedures.
The various members of the presidium seized the occasion to recall that VALOREM was but a software translation of the provisions of the Customs valuation Code and that it was just a decision-support tool that will facilitate the assessment of declared values by verification officers that will hold on to all their prerogatives in terms of entry processing.
The ModelSis team took over to demonstrate the system eTransit that has rendered paperless all the transit operations at the port area. As part of this project, ModelSis has introduced an innovation which, henceforth, will enable all stakeholders concerned to monitor, in real time, the movement of outbound transit cargos. Actually, an intelligent intertwining of IT and Telecom technologies offers the possibilities to bypass some challenges alongside corridors, notably because of the lack of connectivity in some areas.
The ceremony wound up with a film made by ModelSis and which shed light on the transit challenges in the sub region generally marked by cases of fraudulent smuggling of transit goods due to a lack of logistic means for monitoring, which causes a deregulation of the internal markets that is harmful for the national economy.
With these new tools, Senegalese customs has projected a futuristic image but, as said by ModelSis Managing Director, Ms Oumou DIAGNE, the future starts tomorrow!