President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has welcomed the growing continental recognition of Nigeria’s customs modernisation programme following the selection of a subsidiary of Nigerian-owned Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited for a 20-year, multi-billion-dollar AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project.
The project, which will be implemented through Bergmans’ subsidiary, AfriTrade CMP Limited, will deploy digital and physical infrastructure to modernise customs operations, improve cargo tracking and border management, and strengthen trade-data exchange across participating African countries.
Another Bergmans subsidiary, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, is currently implementing Nigeria’s homegrown customs modernisation programme.
Tinubu said the development demonstrated Nigeria’s growing capacity to develop homegrown solutions capable of serving the wider African market.
In a statement made available to The News Chronicle on Monday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President said the success of Nigeria’s customs modernisation programme provided a model for the continent.
“What has been built and tested in Nigeria is now providing a model for the continent. This is how African integration should work: Africans building African solutions for African opportunities.
“Nigeria must not only participate in Africa’s single market. Nigerian institutions and businesses can help build the technology and infrastructure that will make that market work.
“Under our Nigeria First policy, we will continue to create opportunities for capable Nigerian businesses to compete at home, across Africa and globally,” Tinubu said.
The President commended Bergmans, AfriTrade CMP Limited, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller-General of Customs Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and the Nigerian professionals whose efforts contributed to the recognition.
AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, who was in Abuja for the agreement, also visited the Nigeria Customs Service headquarters to inspect the Nigerian customs modernisation programme.
Members of the Senate Committee on Customs, led by Senator Jibrin Isah, joined the visit at the end of their two-day retreat on customs modernisation and reforms.
Mene described B’Odogwu, Nigeria’s indigenous Unified Customs Management System, as a model for Africa.
He disclosed that non-African companies had offered similar services, but AfCFTA opted for an African solution, describing the decision as a demonstration of the continent’s capacity for excellence and innovation.
Following the inspection, Isah said members of his committee had become ambassadors of the system.
First piloted in October 2024, B’Odogwu has become a major component of Nigeria’s customs modernisation programme, alongside cargo tracking, data infrastructure, surveillance, risk management and non-intrusive inspection systems.
The programme is also being integrated with the National Single Window, launched in March 2026 as a single digital gateway for cross-border trade processes.
Tinubu said Nigeria’s experience would help advance the objectives of AfCFTA by moving goods across African borders faster, cheaper and more efficient.
“The promise of AfCFTA will be realised when goods can move across African borders faster, at lower cost and with fewer barriers. Nigeria is ready to contribute its experience, innovation and enterprise to that future,” he said.
