The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Cameroon Customs Administration have launched a joint initiative to facilitate seamless cross-border trade through the Mfum-Ekok corridor, with a focus on eliminating trade bottlenecks, strengthening border security and deepening regional economic integration.
The initiative followed a joint assessment of the Ekok-Mfum One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, under the theme, “Leveraging the Nigeria Customs Service Trade Modernisation Project to Advance Seamless Cross-Border Trade and Shared Prosperity.”
The exercise brought together senior customs officials, technical experts, security agencies, development partners and community leaders from both countries to assess existing challenges and identify measures to improve the efficiency of border operations.
Speaking during the exercise, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said Nigeria and Cameroon were building on an existing partnership to create a more efficient border management system that could serve as a model for broader regional integration.
“We are not building from nothing. We are taking something that works between the two of us and asking whether it can be made to work for the region and hopefully for our continent,” Adeniyi said.
He noted that despite the geographical proximity and longstanding relationship between the two countries, the movement of goods and people across the border remained more difficult than necessary.
The Customs chief highlighted the support of key regional and continental institutions, including the African Development Bank, ECOWAS, ECCAS, Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat, in advancing efforts to facilitate trade across African borders.
Adeniyi further disclosed that officials of both customs administrations had undertaken a study tour of the Beitbridge Border Post between South Africa and Zimbabwe to examine international best practices that could be adapted to the Mfum-Ekok corridor.
He said technical teams from Nigeria and Cameroon were working towards finalising a joint operational agreement, which is expected to be signed at the forthcoming C-PACT conference.
On his part, the Director-General of Cameroon Customs, Fongod Nuvaga, described the assessment as the first concrete step towards achieving more coordinated border operations between the two countries.
Nuvaga called for enhanced real-time data sharing and joint risk-management mechanisms, stressing that cargo and travellers should be processed once through coordinated procedures rather than subjected to repeated checks by agencies on both sides of the border.
The assessment concluded with the launch of the Mfum-Ekok Border Modernisation Initiative, which is expected to deploy technology to digitise customs processes, improve physical infrastructure and create new economic opportunities along the trade corridor.
The initiative is also expected to advance the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by reducing delays, improving the predictability of border procedures and facilitating the movement of goods and people between Nigeria and Cameroon.
The development marks a renewed push by both countries to transform the Mfum-Ekok corridor into a more efficient trade gateway and strengthen bilateral economic cooperation.
