President Bola Tinubu has welcomed the selection of a subsidiary of Nigerian-owned Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited to implement a 20-year, multi-billion-dollar African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Customs Modernisation Project.

He described the development as a recognition of Nigeria’s growing capacity to develop home-grown solutions for the African market.

The project, to be executed through Bergmans’ subsidiary, AfriTrade CMP Limited, will deploy digital and physical infrastructure to modernise customs processes, cargo tracking, border management and trade-data exchange across participating African countries.

Another subsidiary of the company, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, is implementing Nigeria’s indigenous customs modernisation programme.

Tinubu said the continental adoption of an approach developed and tested in Nigeria demonstrated the potential of Nigerian institutions and businesses to contribute to the infrastructure required to make the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) work effectively.

“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 commended Bergmans, AfriTrade CMP Limited, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and Nigerian professionals involved in the development of the systems.

The President said: “I commend Bergmans, AfriTrade CMP Limited, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, the Nigeria Customs Service, CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and the Nigerian professionals whose work has earned this confidence.”

AfCFTA Secretary-General, Wamkele Mene, who was in Abuja for the signing of the agreement, also visited the headquarters of the Nigeria Customs Service to inspect the country’s customs modernisation programme.

Members of the Senate Committee on Customs, led by its Chairman, Senator Jibrin Isah, joined the visit at the conclusion of the committee’s two-day retreat on customs modernisation and reforms.

During the visit, Mene described B’Odogwu, Nigeria’s indigenous Unified Customs Management System, as a potential model for other African countries.

He disclosed that non-African companies had offered similar services for the continental project but said AfCFTA opted for an African solution, highlighting the importance of African innovation and expertise in advancing regional integration.

Senator Isah, after observing the systems in operation, said members of the committee had become ambassadors of the modernisation programme.

B’Odogwu, which was first piloted in October 2024, has become a key component of Nigeria’s customs reform programme, alongside cargo tracking, data infrastructure, surveillance, risk management and non-intrusive inspection systems.