President Bola Tinubu has commended the selection of Nigerian-owned Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited for a 20-year, multi-billion-dollar AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project.
The project will deploy digital and physical infrastructure to improve customs processes, cargo tracking, border management and trade data exchange across participating African countries.
Tinubu in a statement by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, said the development validates Nigeria’s capacity to build homegrown solutions for the wider African market.
The president pledged to continue creating opportunities for capable Nigerian businesses to compete at home, across Africa and globally.
AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, who was in Abuja for the agreement, also visited the Nigeria Customs Service headquarters to see the Nigerian programme in operation.
Mene described B’Odogwu, Nigeria’s indigenous Unified Customs Management System, as a model for Africa and disclosed that non-African companies had offered similar services. However, AfCFTA chose an African solution, underscoring the importance of African excellence and innovation.
B’Odogwu, first piloted in October 2024, has become central to customs modernisation in Nigeria alongside cargo tracking, data infrastructure, surveillance, risk management and non-intrusive inspection.
