President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said the ongoing transformation of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) demonstrates the country’s growing capacity to develop indigenous solutions capable of serving the wider African market.
The President made the assertion while welcoming the recognition of Nigeria’s Customs modernisation model by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as well as the selection of a subsidiary of Nigerian-owned Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited to implement a 20-year, multi-billion-dollar continental Customs modernisation project.
The selected subsidiary, AfriTrade CMP Limited, is expected to deploy digital and physical infrastructure to strengthen Customs processes, cargo tracking, border management and trade-data exchange across participating African countries.
Tinubu said the development was significant because another subsidiary of the Nigerian firm, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, is already implementing Nigeria’s homegrown Customs modernisation programme through the NCS.
According to the President, the experience gained from developing and deploying the system in Nigeria is increasingly demonstrating that Nigerian institutions and businesses can provide practical solutions to some of Africa’s trade and economic integration challenges.
“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 market,” Tinubu said.
He added that Nigerian institutions and businesses could help build the technology and infrastructure needed to make Africa’s single market more efficient and competitive.
The President said his administration would continue, under the Nigeria First policy, to create opportunities for capable Nigerian businesses to compete within the country, across Africa and globally.
Tinubu commended Bergmans, AfriTrade CMP Limited, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, the NCS, Comptroller-General of Customs Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, and Nigerian professionals whose work had contributed to the continental recognition.
He also linked the development to the reforms taking place within the Customs Service under Adeniyi, stressing that the growing recognition of Nigerian-developed Customs technologies underscored the importance of investment in digital transformation, institutional capacity and indigenous expertise.
The AfCFTA recognition followed a visit by its Secretary-General, Wamkele Mene, to the NCS Headquarters in Abuja, where he inspected the Trade Modernisation Project in operation.
Mene, who visited alongside members of the Senate Committee on Customs led by Senator Jibrin Isah, described B’Odogwu, Nigeria’s indigenous Unified Customs Management System, as a model with potential for wider adoption across Africa.
He said while non-African companies had offered similar solutions, the AfCFTA had chosen an African solution, highlighting the growing role of African expertise and innovation in shaping the continent’s trade architecture.
B’Odogwu, which was first piloted in October 2024, forms a central part of the NCS modernisation programme, supporting digital Customs processes, cargo tracking, data infrastructure, surveillance, risk management and non-intrusive inspection capabilities.
The modernisation programme is also being integrated with the National Single Window, launched in March 2026 as a single digital gateway for cross-border trade processes.
The developments are expected to further strengthen Nigeria’s trade infrastructure while positioning locally developed Customs technology for potential adoption across the African market.
