AfCFTA, Customs Sign MoU to Ease Trade
The African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, the Nigeria Customs Service, and Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve trade and customs operations across Africa.
The agreement was signed on Wednesday in Lagos. It is expected to connect customs systems across African countries, making it easier to clear goods at borders.
Speaking after the signing, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, described the agreement as a major step towards improving trade on the continent.
“What this would help us to achieve is that it would help our systems to be able to speak to themselves, so that when you make declarations in Ghana, or anywhere, it should not be difficult for the Nigerian customs system to process it. This is actually a landmark and historic agreement,” Adeniyi stated.
He noted that the platform would reduce delays, cut the cost of doing business, and increase government revenue. “If we get trade facilitation right, it helps us to remove delays and reduce the cost and time of doing business. We believe it will help people to import more, and then our revenue will increase,” he added.
Also speaking, the Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, said the partnership would help create one digital customs system for Africa.
“We believe that the partnership with Bergman Security will enable us to reach our objective of creating a continental, modern, interoperable customs system that will ensure that all our economic operators benefit from an expanded market,” Mene stated.
Mene emphasised that the new system would make life easier for traders, especially small businesses.
The Chairman of Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies Limited, Saleh Ahmadu, said the company would use the technology already working in Nigeria to build a customs platform for Africa.
“The goal is to build an African platform for Africa based on the model we have here in Nigeria, which will be interoperable with all the African countries,” Ahmadu disclosed. He added that the project would begin with six African countries before expanding to other parts of the continent.