The new system was introduced during a two-day training workshop organised by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in collaboration with the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), the Gambia National Single Window (GNSW) and other stakeholders.
Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ansumana Sanneh, said the digital system is part of government’s wider effort to modernise public services and improve efficiency and accountability.
“For many years, the duty waiver process was done on a manual basis, involving the movement of documents between applicants, ministries and institutions involved in the review process,” he said.
Sanneh said the new system is intended to simplify the application process, reduce the burden on applicants and make the process more transparent and efficient.
Director of ICT and Digitalisation at GNSW and project manager, Musa Saidykhan, said the previous system was largely manual, with physical applications moving between line ministries, GRA and the Ministry of Finance.
The new system, he added, would improve the visibility and traceability of applications, reduce physical paperwork, strengthen accountability and provide reliable information for monitoring and policy decisions.
Saidykhan said the different institutions involved in the process now have clearly defined responsibilities within the system. Once an application reaches the relevant desk, the ministry has committed to processing it within 48 hours if everything is in order.
“That means if everything goes well, within a span of 72 hours, you should be able to have your duty waiver application either approved or rejected,” he said.
He urged applicants to respond quickly when applications are referred back for corrections or missing documents, noting that the system sends an SMS notification when this happens.
The initiative, he added, forms part of GRA’s five-year digitalisation programme from 2025 to 2029, which aims to create a paperless office.
President of the Association of Customs Clearing and Forwarding Agents, Essa Wally, said clearing agents have suffered delays under the previous process.
“We are very much grateful to the Single Window for making life so easy for us,” Wally said, adding that the system has helped improve vessel turnaround and clearance time.
He said the workshop would help participants better understand the new process and called for patience, vigilance and collaboration among stakeholders.
