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From Idu Jude, Abuja
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says Nigeria’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model is blazing a trail for Africa’s trade future.
The Commission indicated that this is being controlled with a home-grown, indigenously built solution now serving as the template for a $3.1 billion continental customs modernisation drive under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
Director-General of the ICRC, Dr. Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh, stated this in Abuja on Tuesday, in response to the recent signing of the AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project concession agreement, which adopted Nigeria’s Customs Modernisation Project as its model.
Dr. Ewalefoh had recently undertaken a monitoring and compliance visit to the project, where he assessed progress on B’Odogwu, the Unified Customs Management System developed under the partnership and now central to the Nigeria Customs Service’s digital operations.
The AfCFTA Secretariat had signed a 20-year, $3.1 billion concession agreement with Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies Limited, parent company of TMP, to deploy the AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project across roughly 50 member countries, in support of a single continental market of about 1.3 billion people.
AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene had said the Nigerian experience demonstrated that technology could transform customs administration, and that the success recorded gave the Secretariat the confidence to replicate the model across the continent.
Dr. Ewalefoh said Nigeria’s willingness to place an indigenous solution at the centre of a continental trade project speaks to the strength of the country’s PPP framework, structured and regulated by the ICRC, and sustained over the years by consistent presidential-level support for private-sector-driven infrastructure delivery.
“Africa is not just adopting a piece of technology. Africa is adopting a Nigerian idea, built by Nigerians, proven on Nigerian soil, and now trusted to carry the trade ambitions of an entire continent,” Dr. Ewalefoh said. “This is what PPPs, properly structured and properly regulated, can deliver.”
The Commission noted that the project’s roots go back to its formative structuring years, when Dr. Ewalefoh, long before becoming Director-General, served as ICRC’s desk officer on the project. That history underscores the depth of institutional commitment behind the project from the outset. “There was commitment at the highest level. Everybody was there; the project was structured. This is the first project in the history of this country that was executed as a presidential initiative, through a PPP,” he said.
He recalled that the project faced significant doubt and resistance in its early stages. “When this project came on board, there were a lot of doubts. We asked ourselves: will this work, can we trust the capacity of the proponent? But today, what we are seeing is amazing,” he said, adding that it also had to overcome resistance before it could take root.
On Nigeria’s decision to back an indigenous company rather than a foreign solution provider, he said: “It should be our pride that Nigeria can sell something to the rest of Africa. We are not selling a solution built by a foreign company; we are selling an indigenous Nigerian company to the world. Nigerian engineers and Nigerian talent designed and built this solution from scratch.”
He described the working relationship between the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and TMP as evidence that PPPs, when properly structured, serve the public interest rather than displacing it. “There is proper synergy between the grantor and the concessionaire. The result we are seeing today speaks for itself,” he said, adding that the greatest obstacle to reform of this kind is not funding but institutional resistance to change: “The biggest challenge is not ideas, the biggest challenge is not funding — the biggest challenge is resistance to change. For Nigerian Customs to open up, modernize, and leverage private-sector expertise and capital deserves recognition.”
Ewalefoh also commended the leadership of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, for his role in driving the success of the e-Customs transformation, noting that his sustained push for the rollout of B’Odogwu across Customs commands nationwide has been central to the confidence the project has now earned on the continental stage.
The ICRC noted that TMP is not an isolated success but part of a broader pattern of credible PPP delivery under its regulation, citing the Lekki Deep Sea Port as another example of private capital transforming Nigerian infrastructure through well-structured concession arrangements.
Beyond individual project success, ICRC said this pattern speaks to something larger: Nigeria’s $1 trillion economy ambition under the Renewed Hope Development Plan 2026-2030, which relies on private investment for most of its capital. The Trade Modernisation Project, ICRC noted, is a live example of that model already delivering results.
Ewalefoh said Nigeria’s customs modernisation experience had already lifted customs revenue significantly since implementation began, a gain he described as proof that well-regulated PPPs can strengthen public finances rather than strain them. “Every naira of private investment that goes into infrastructure like this is a naira the government does not have to borrow, while the returns, in revenue and efficiency, still accrue to the country,” he said.
He added that Bergmans’ selection for the continental AfCFTA project positions a Nigerian company as an infrastructure exporter in its own right. “Nigeria is no longer only a market but a supplier of solutions to Africa — the kind of enterprise the $1 trillion agenda is built on,” he said.
The development also comes weeks after Dr. Ewalefoh, speaking at the ECOWAS Infrastructure Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, called for closer regional cooperation on PPPs, advocating a regional network of national PPP institutions across West Africa to deepen technical capacity, facilitate knowledge sharing and harmonise standards for project appraisal and implementation, which he said would improve the credibility of PPP transactions across borders.
“What we are seeing with AfCFTA today is the regional cooperation I called for in Abidjan taking concrete shape,” Dr. Ewalefoh said. “One country’s well-regulated PPP can become the infrastructure backbone of an entire continent.”
The ICRC also noted that concerns raised in some quarters about PPPs displacing jobs run contrary to the TMP experience, where the partnership has created additional employment for Nigerian engineering talent while strengthening customs revenue collection.
