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President Bola Tinubu has commended Nigeria’s indigenous customs modernisation system, B’Odogwu, following its recognition by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which selected a Nigerian-owned firm to implement a 20-year, multi-billion-dollar customs modernisation project across participating African countries.
President Bola Tinubu, reacting to the development, said the recognition demonstrated that solutions developed and tested in Nigeria could now serve the wider African market.
In a statement signed by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the project will be implemented through AfriTrade CMP Limited, a subsidiary of Nigerian-owned Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited, and will deploy digital and physical infrastructure to improve customs processes, cargo tracking, border management and trade data exchange across participating African countries.
Another subsidiary of Bergmans, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, is currently implementing Nigeria’s homegrown customs modernisation programme.
Tinubu said the development was evidence that Nigeria could play a leading role in building the infrastructure required to make African economic integration work.
“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.
He said Nigeria should not merely participate in Africa’s single market but should also provide the technology and infrastructure needed to facilitate trade across the continent.
“Nigeria must not only participate in Africa’s single market. Nigerian institutions and businesses can help build the technology and infrastructure that will make that market work,” Tinubu said.
The President linked the development to his administration’s Nigeria First policy, saying the government would continue to create opportunities for capable Nigerian businesses to compete domestically, across Africa and globally.
“Under our Nigeria First policy, we will continue to create opportunities for capable Nigerian businesses to compete at home, across Africa and globally,” he said.
Tinubu commended Bergmans, AfriTrade CMP Limited, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, and the Nigerian professionals whose work contributed to the development of the system.
The continental recognition followed a visit by AfCFTA Secretary-General, Wamkele Mene, to the headquarters of the Nigeria Customs Service in Abuja, where he inspected the Nigerian customs modernisation programme.
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Mene, who was in Abuja for the agreement, described B’Odogwu, Nigeria’s indigenous Unified Customs Management System, as a model for Africa.
He disclosed that non-African companies had also offered similar services but said AfCFTA opted for an African solution, underscoring the importance of African innovation and excellence.
The decision effectively places Nigeria’s customs technology at the centre of a wider continental effort to digitise border management and remove some of the administrative and technological barriers limiting intra-African trade.
Members of the Senate Committee on Customs, led by Senator Jibrin Isah, also joined the visit after concluding a two-day retreat on customs modernisation and reforms.
After seeing the systems in operation, Isah said members of the committee had become ambassadors of the modernisation programme.
B’Odogwu, which was first piloted in October 2024, has become central to Nigeria’s customs reform programme, alongside cargo tracking, data infrastructure, surveillance, risk management and non-intrusive inspection.
The programme is also being integrated with the National Single Window, launched in March 2026 to provide a single digital gateway for cross-border trade processes.
The integration is expected to facilitate the exchange of trade information and improve the efficiency of customs and other border-related processes.
For Nigeria, the AfCFTA project represents more than an international contract. It provides an opportunity for local technology and expertise developed through the country’s customs reform programme to be deployed beyond its borders and potentially replicated across African markets.
Tinubu said the ultimate measure of the African Continental Free Trade Area would be its ability to make the movement of goods across national borders faster, cheaper and less cumbersome.
“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,” he said.
The President said the development reinforced the potential of African institutions and businesses to develop solutions to the continent’s challenges while reaffirming Nigeria’s readiness to provide leadership in the transformation of Africa’s trade infrastructure.
