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Senegal employs advanced tech. to boost customs department
Tuesday, 15 February 2011 02:01
JollofNews - Senegal has joined league with American multinational technology and consulting firm, IBM,
manufacturer of computer hardware and software, in a bid to digitalize its Customs department.The collaboration between the Customs Directorate of Senegal's Ministry of Finance, IBM and its business partner in West Africa, CFAO Technologies, aims at modernizing the country’s import and export processes.
The International Business Machines (IBM) offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. Its new project in Senegal will be based on two of its mainframe computers, aimed at giving customs officers and their partners on-line access to real-time information across all of the country's 30 border checkpoints.
An enormous departure from what obtains in the sub region, the new system in Senegal will empower its customs officers across the country to make better decisions and ensure the improved management of customs processes such as import and export duty. It will, for instance, allow customs officers to check to see if the correct duty has been paid on shipments of goods coming into the country.
"Senegal's import and export business plays a key role in the economy of the country," said Simon Pierre Thiaw, CIO of the Customs Directorate at the Ministry Finance.
According to Thiaw, by implementing some of the most advanced and powerful IT systems available, Senegal would be able to transform its customs processes and ensure that the work they do is performed as accurately and efficiently as possible.
“While we considered alternative offerings from other vendors, we were convinced by the price/performance ratio of the IBM system," he assured.
According to a statement by IBM, by establishing this system, Senegal’s Ministry of Finance joins a growing number of organizations and companies in growth markets that are deploying IBM mainframe in Namibia, Russia, Malaysia, China, Korea, among other countries.
"IBM is committed to working with companies and governments across Africa to transform the way they work and do things smarter," said Taiwo Otiti, Country General Manager for IBM West Africa. He described the agreement with the country’s Ministry of Finance as “a great example of how technology can be applied to modernize government systems and support economic growth."
Until now, this facility has been limited to the Port of Dakar and Dakar Airport. However, with the new system, the Finance Ministry will be able to bring on-line all of its import and export processes from across the country as well as digitize its payroll and HR processes. Additional advantages include the Ministry’s ability to increase the performance of its systems by 70%, reduce power consumption by 20% and cut operating costs by 30%.
“With advanced recovery capabilities, the new system will also help the Ministry to safeguard and recover critical information and reduce possible downtime in the case of a systems failure,” the IBM statement assured.
"The new system at the Senegal Ministry of Finance is one of the most powerful in the West African region and will provide the Ministry of Finance and its officers with real-time information to support timely and accurate decision making," said Jean-Noel Le Foll, General Manager of CFAO Technologies in Senegal.
Written by Dam Mbai
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