LAGOS, Aug 6 – The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has signed a 20-year concession agreement worth $3.1 billion with Nigeria’s Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies Ltd to implement a continent-wide customs modernisation system across 50 African countries.
The agreement, signed in Abuja, will see Bergmans finance and deploy the project, which is designed to digitise customs procedures, harmonise cross-border processes and introduce real-time cargo tracking to facilitate trade across the continent.
The project will be implemented through AfriTrade CMP Ltd, a subsidiary of Bergmans, drawing on the company’s experience from Nigeria’s customs modernisation programme.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene said outdated manual customs systems continue to undermine trade efficiency across Africa.
According to Mene, “Manual customs systems contribute to corruption, revenue leakages, under-invoicing and over-invoicing.”
He noted that 50 African Union member states have now ratified the AfCFTA Agreement and revealed that intra-African trade reached $220 billion in 2024, representing a 12.5% year-on-year increase.
The customs modernisation initiative is intended to support AfCFTA’s broader objective of doubling intra-African trade by 2035 through standardised customs procedures, improved data collection and real-time monitoring of goods moving across borders.
Mene also highlighted the impact of Nigeria’s customs modernisation programme, stating that it had helped increase customs revenue by 90.4%, a model the continental project aims to replicate across participating countries.
The agreement marks one of the largest digital trade infrastructure projects undertaken under the AfCFTA framework and reflects growing efforts to remove non-tariff barriers, strengthen customs administration and improve the efficiency of cross-border trade across Africa.
If successfully implemented, the initiative is expected to enhance trade facilitation, improve revenue collection, reduce customs-related fraud and support deeper regional economic integration under the AfCFTA.
