President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has welcomed 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.
In a statement issued Monday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu said the deal demonstrated Nigeria’s growing capacity to develop solutions for the wider African market.
The project will be implemented through Bergmans’ subsidiary, AfriTrade CMP Limited, which will deploy digital and physical infrastructure to improve customs processes, cargo tracking, border management and trade-data exchange across participating African countries.
Another Bergmans subsidiary, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, is implementing Nigeria’s homegrown customs modernisation programme.
Tinubu said the continental project showed that solutions developed in Nigeria could serve the wider African market.
“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.”
The president said Nigeria must play a leading role in building the technology and infrastructure needed to support Africa’s single market.
“Under our Nigeria First policy, we will continue to create opportunities for capable Nigerian businesses to compete at home, across Africa and globally.”
Tinubu also commended Bergmans, its subsidiaries, the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and Nigerian professionals involved in the modernisation programme.
“I commend Bergmans, AfriTrade CMP Limited, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, the Nigeria Customs Service, CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and the Nigerian professionals whose work has earned this confidence.”
AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene visited the Nigeria Customs Service headquarters in Abuja to inspect the Nigerian programme in operation.
Members of the Senate Committee on Customs, led by Senator Jibrin Isah, also joined the visit after completing a 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 said non-African companies had offered similar services but AfCFTA chose an African solution, highlighting the role of African innovation and expertise.
Senator Isah said members of his committee had become ambassadors of the system after seeing it in operation.
B’Odogwu, first piloted in October 2024, forms part of Nigeria’s customs modernisation programme alongside cargo tracking, data infrastructure, surveillance, risk management and non-intrusive inspection.
The system 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 could help reduce barriers to trade across the continent.
“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.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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