NSSWC Building, ELWA Junction, Paynesville, Liberia
+231-888572572 / 770572572

Customs Profile

Customs is one of the core operational departments of the Liberia Revenue Authority and is responsible for border management and border enforcement in relations to:

  • collection of duties and border taxes and fees on international trade
  • facilitation of legitimate trade
  • strategic trade control for environmental protection and international supply chain security, and
  • regulation of the movement of all means of transport including land, sea and air transport, whether civil or military, attending customs ports of entry in Liberia.

Customs is also a member of the National Joint Security in Liberia and performs other collaborative functions, through its strategic control of the international trade supply chain, such as:

  • Drug enforcement at borders
  • Anti-money laundering operations
  • Counter-terrorism operations such as the creation of deliberate disruptions to terrorist networks use of the international supply chain to transport precursor chemicals used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Structure of Department

The Customs Department (CD), headed by a Commissioner, comprises three strategic divisions which are headed by Assistant Commissioners. The office of the Customs Commissioner is also assisted by two critical units, headed by managers, for support services to the Commissioner in the areas of customs reforms and exemptions management.

Port Operations – comprises twenty Customs Business Offices (CBO) at land borders, sea and airports across Liberia which are directly responsible to enforce the collection of duties and all border taxes on international trade and prevent smuggling and illicit trade within the framework of the revenue laws of Liberia. The CBOs, headed by senior customs collectors, are listed as follows:

Edwin F. Kendema
Assistant Commissioner
Port Operations
Tel. +(231) 886563534

Technical Operations – with supervisory oversight of transit management and warehousing operations, the division has the strategic responsibility for managing technical matters relating to valuation, Harmonized System (HS) and rules of origin. Offices of oversight include Bonded Warehousing & Transit (B&T) and the Centralized Assessment Unit (CAU)

Mr. William L. Buku
Assistant Commissioner
Technical Operations Division
+ (231) 8886520392

Compliance & Enforcement (C&E) – the division comprises several critical units, headed by managers, which collaborate with other divisions in Customs on matters of trade facilitation, intelligence, investigation and customs enforcement across the customs territory of Liberia. the units of oversight under the Assistant Commissioner include:

  • Customs Risk Management & Intelligence Unit (CRMIU)
  • Anti-Smuggling & Investigations Unit (ASIU)
  • Post Clearance Audit (PCA)
  • Customs Collection Enforcement (CCE)

Atty. D. Blamo Kofa
Assistant Commissioner
Compliance & Enforcement Division
Tel. + (231) 886579037

Apart from supervising the three divisions previously mentioned, these other functions are subsumed under the office of the Commissioner of Customs.

Collection Enforcement – headed by a manager, is responsible to enforce the collection of post clearance audit bills and maintains the customs debt profiles of importers and exporters with feedback to Risk Management and PCA.

Customs Reform & Modernization (CRM) – headed by a manager is responsible to manage and monitor all customs reform projects. This function, research and project-based, is pivotal to the future of Liberia Customs in the global customs community.

Duty Free, headed by a manager, is responsible for the processing, management and monitoring of customs duty & tax exemptions. This function is very criticalto Customs as any poor supervision leads to a loss of potential customs revenue. The dollar value of our current duty & tax exemption is more than 50 percent of the total customs collection of US$198M.