Nigeria is set to export its home-grown customs modernisation model to the rest of Africa after the African Continental Free Trade Area adopted the country’s electronic customs system as the template for a $3.1bn continental project.
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission said the development marked a major validation of Nigeria’s public-private partnership framework, with the indigenous solution developed for the Nigeria Customs Service now expected to support trade across about 50 African countries.
The AfCFTA Secretariat recently signed a 20-year, $3.1bn concession agreement with Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies Limited, the parent company of Trade Modernisation Project, to deploy the AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project across member states.
The project is expected to support the development of a more integrated customs system for the African single market, which has a population of about 1.3 billion people.
The Director-General of the ICRC, Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday while reacting to the adoption of Nigeria’s Customs Modernisation Project as the model for the continental initiative.
