List of Community Computer Center (CCC) Accomplished Programs

1. ASYCUDA – Automating Management and Customs Goods Clearance

From 1989 to 2009 the Community Computer Centre facilitated the deployment of the customs goods clearance and management software, ASYCUDA, in 13 Member States and organized training for customs staff on the technical and functional aspects of the software: user training, refresher courses, long duration computer courses culminating in Certificate of Computer Studies and offered technical assistance to Member States in the management of ASYCUDA projects.

Between 1998 and 2005, in collaboration with the UNCTAD, the directorate assisted Member States to migrate to a higher version of ASYCUDA, the ASYCUDA++. The department equally employed ISO and WCO standards to prepare a compendium of regional trade statistical codes nicknamed the Community Configuration, developed the ECOWAS Single Customs Declaration (SCD) document, and organized technology study tours for staff of customs administrations.

Since 2000 the directorate embarked on the regional project to interconnect the computer systems of national customs administrations of Member States to facilitate the regional transit trade, ALISA. In addition the department engaged in assisting Member States to migrate to a higher version of ASYCUA, the ASYCUDAWorld, organized annual meetings of Experts and Directors General of customs, developed the regional automated transit trade (ALISA) project document and the manual of automated regional transit procedures, leading to the adoption of the manual as well as the project document by ECOWAS Finance ministers in Ouagadougou in November 2011 and in 2014 subsumed the PACIR transit interconnection project in the ALISA project.

Thus the directorate’s activities are field-bound and involve software and hardware infrastructure, configuration, deployment and training for both support staff and users. The directorate also participates in international conferences in order to be abreast with technology trends.

Results achieved so far include, reduction in goods clearance times from days to a few hours; increase in customs receipts of Member States; trade facilitation; more efficient ways to combat fraud through risk management; availability of foreign trade statistics; ready provisioning of external trade statistics; real time availability of customs data and statistics; real time monitoring of customs goods clearance operations and consistent upward climb in customs revenue of Member States.

2. Collaboration with regional and international partners:

Strategic meetings were held with World Custom Organization (WCO) in 2015 regarding the modernization of customs administration in West Africa following which decisions were taken to subsume the implementation of the customs interconnection project (PACIR) being undertaken by Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso and Senegal under the ALISA project and designate the department’s Centre of Excellency for the Automation of Trade (CEAT) in Lomé as project headquarters.

The ALISA project envisages the interconnection of the computer systems of customs administrations of the 15 Member States in a regional automated transit network to facilitate transit trade and specifically, intra-community trade.

3. Regional Customs Y2K Project

The Community Computer Centre through the Centre for the Automation of Trade based in Lomé, Togo handled various Y2K related projects within the region. The projects involved the reconfiguration of the data systems of the customs clearance and management computer systems of 12 customs administrations. Revenue made from its previous projects to the tune of US$ 350,000 was used to undertake the Y2K projects. Projects activities included regional meetings for the sensitization of management and staff on the Y2K problem, preparation of requirement specifications for Y2K compliance, technical teams to resolve Y2K problems in 13 of the Member States.

4. Equipped embassies of member states in Abuja, Nigeria, with computer systems and internet facilities

The Community Computer Centre procured computer equipment for embassies of member states in Abuja, Nigeria with the aim of improving work effectiveness. Internet facilities with an initial subscription of 12 months was provided. The directorate also designated IT support to the embassies to assist in solving any IT-related challenges being experienced in the use of those equipment.

5. ECOWAS Network Modernization in year 2014

The following were achieved in support of timely and efficient realization of the ECOWAS mandate:-

i.   The first and second phases of the Network Infrastructure Modernization project was implemented successfully, leading to the deployment of VOIP communication between the Commission Headquarters at Asokoro and the two annexes at River Plaza & Niger House respectively.

ii.   The Data Center Modernization project commenced and is ongoing;

iii.   Supported all Departments/Directorates of ECOWAS Commission as Internal IT support team in acquiring, installing and maintaining IT systems.

iv.   IT Service Management Support to the SAP project team was sustained during the period.

6. Development and deployment of an integrated intranet system comprising of Microsoft online Exchange mailing system, Microsoft Lync and Microsoft SharePoint.

In terms of its obligation to ECOWAS Institutions, the Community Computer Center is responsible for the development and deployment of an intranet system for the ECOWAS Institutions and Agencies. The deployment has commenced at the ECOWAS Commission, ECOWAS Court of Justice and ECOWAS Parliament with Microsoft online Exchange mailing system fully operational. Other component of the intranet system are at the testing stage which precedes the deployment of the system. The CCC has further deployed the first phase of a Unified Communication intranet system.

7. E-Learning for Staff

The staff e-Learning facility was launched in July 2015. The facility will assist staff to acquire skills and knowledge in disciplines related to the job function which engage their interest.

Trained handlers of the facility were drawn from HR and the CCC.

Any staff regardless of institution and location is eligible and only needs to request for clearance to use the facility from the HR Department of the Commission