The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has formally executed a 20-year, $3.1 billion Concession Agreement with Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited for the implementation of the AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project (ACMP).

The signing ceremony took place at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja and comes weeks after the two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed to transform customs administration and facilitate seamless trade across Africa.

The Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene signed on behalf of the continental body while theChairman of Bergmans, Alhaji Saleh Ahmadu, signed for the company.

The project aims to provide the technological backbone required to operationalise key AfCFTA protocols on customs harmonisation and trade facilitation while enabling African customs administrations to improve operational efficiency, safeguard government revenues and accelerate intra-African trade without imposing additional financial burdens on national budgets.

Speaking after the concession was executed, the AfCFTA Secretary General praised Bergmans for the unprecedented changes it has brought to Nigeria’s Customs Service through digitalization and other technology- driven innovations which he said has helped to improve clearance operations speed, reduced time and drastically brought down corruption while revenue inflow has more than tripled.

He said the initiative aligns with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, regarded as the world’s largest free trade area, adding that already, 50 member countries have keyed into the project, adding that it would support the creation of a single continental market serving approximately 1.3 billion people with a combined gross domestic product estimated at $3.4 trillion.

According to him, the deal was critical a huge milestone in the digital transformation and overall modernization of African trade and customs infrastructure.

He praised Nigerian government and Nigerian Customs Service for engaging Bergmans to showcase their ingenuity, saying it was the great feat they recorded with the Nigerian experience that motivated AfCFTA Secretariat to decide engaging the company to drive the African Customs transformation initiative, adding that all Africans should be proud of Bergmans.

On his part, Ahmadu said with the execution of the Concession, the company was good to go and ready to invest $3.1 billion, saying among its obligations was the deployment of continent-wide digital and physical customs infrastructure designed to modernize Customs procedures, improve trade corridors and simplify the cross-border movement of goods among AfCFTA State Parties.

He said the Nigerian project has achieved significant success and gained international recognition, serving as a model for customs modernisation across the African continent., adding that with the concession, Bergmans would introduce advanced Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technology, integrated data centres and multilingual customs portals that will support the continent’s official languages.