Djibouti customs sought the full automation of transit procedure for goods entering Ethiopia using ASYCUDAWorld. 

Situation:  

Before 2019, transit processing was neither fully automated nor paperless. Djiboutian freight forwarders had to physically visit customs offices to submit paper declarations, then request the generation of transit documents (T1s). This procedure caused delays and additional hardware costs, such as for printing. 85% of declarations processed by Djibouti customs handled the transit of goods to Ethiopia.

Solution:

To facilitate the transit procedure, customs decided to automate it. T1s are now generated by freight forwarders, and additional documentation scanned and attached to the electronic declaration submitted using ASYCUDAWorld. The payment of taxes is handled automatically and instantaneously by ASYCUDAWorld through prepayment accounts.

Result:

The automation of the transit procedure enables: 

• A simplification of the process followed by Djibouti customs when granting entry/exit of goods to/from customs and border offices by the scanning of barcodes on drivers’ roadmaps. N.b. 1,500 trucks cross the Djibouti-Ethiopia border every day.

• The preventing of bottlenecks in customs offices and checkpoints. In 2021, 50% of transiting goods were cleared in less than an hour, 94% in less than a day.

• An improved control and tracking of goods in transit. An average of 675 T1s are generated daily in average, with a daily peak of 1563 T1s reached in 2021.

• 80% of goods transiting to Ethiopia were cleared in less than 4 hours in 2021 with the implementation of the ASYCUDAWorld.

Note: This is an extract from UNCTAD’s new compendium featuring the experiences of 22 countries, including Djibouti, participating in its Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) programme. See Page 20 and 21 for the Djibouti case study.