On July 25, the Bureau Veritas Group, with their partner Soget, have launched the pilot phase of the Single Window concession for maritime imports into Togo.

The ceremony took place in Lomé, under the patronage of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Faure GNASSINGBE and in the presence of Prime Minister, Kwesi AHOOMEY-ZUNU and the Minister of Trade and Private Sector Promotion, Bernadette LEGZIM-BALOUKI.

The pilot phase allows the testing of the electronic platform for its technical and organizational dimensions and will permit the assessment of user acceptance. The arrival of ships at the port of Lomé will determine which players will be selected to participate in the Pilot Phase. All other players in the import trading community traffic will then be gradually merged into the scheme based upon the scalability over the next few weeks.

The pilot phase will reduce the medium term optimal deployment of Single Window for different types of transport and all other logistical industries of Togo.

This trade facilitation platform is available 24h/7 in a simplified but secure environment for each stage of the supply chain.

According to Olivier LEDERER, Managing Director of SEGUCE Togo, "this innovative solution meets the requirements of trade facilitation. It reduces the time and costs related to commercial transactions and related logistic operations simplifying procedures for import, export and transit, and to improve transparency in relations between business community and the authorities."

Source: Bureau Veritas