The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Benin Republic Customs have commenced moves to integrate their systems and harmonise border procedures to facilitate seamless cross-border trade between the two countries.
The initiative is part of efforts to fully operationalise the Sèmè–Kraké Joint Border Post and reduce delays, trade barriers and other bottlenecks affecting the movement of goods and travellers along the Nigeria-Benin corridor.
Speaking on Friday at the assessment of the Joint Nigeria- Benin Republic One- Stop Border Post at Sèmè-Kraké, Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said the two administrations were working towards establishing interconnectivity between their systems to enable real-time exchange of trade and enforcement information.
He said the technical teams of both administrations had commenced work on the interconnection of their systems, with the aim of making the new arrangement operational within the next three months.
“First, we are going to be looking at putting in place a system that the two systems, the systems in Benin and the system in Nigeria, can easily connect with. That is the interconnectivity that we talked about.
“Once that is done, the timeline they gave us is that within the next three months, all of this will have started working, ” he said.
Adeniyi said the two customs administrations currently operated under one roof but lacked seamless real-time exchange of declarations, manifests, transit information, risk profiles and enforcement alerts.
He said, “Without interconnectivity, this is not a joint border post. It is two border posts sharing a car park.”
Adeniyi reaffirmed the NCS’ commitment to close the systems gap through a common data exchange arrangement, building on the regional transit experience of both administrations.
He said the arrangement would enable a declaration lodged on one side to become visible to the other in real time, facilitate tracking of transit cargo from origin to destination and ensure that risk profiles or enforcement alerts raised by one administration reached its counterpart promptly.
He added that the joint assessment had identified other areas requiring attention, including restoration of scanning facilities, strengthening of access control, surveillance and lighting, as well as the establishment of a joint Nigeria-Benin enforcement and intelligence mechanism.
Adeniyi also called for harmonised bilingual standard operating procedures covering cargo, passengers, inspection, transit and incident escalation, as well as joint risk management.
According to him, the Sèmè-Kraké crossing sits on the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, which carries about 70 per cent of the sub-region’s transit trade, making the efficiency of the border critical to regional economic activities.
“What we seek to achieve here is that Sèmè–Kraké be treated as a strategic border modernisation programme, and not as a series of isolated repairs. The objective is to achieve a model
technology-enabled Joint Border Post, built on Customs interconnectivity, joint risk management, coordinated enforcement, secure infrastructure, harmonised procedures and accountable joint governance, ” he said.
Adeniyi also announced the establishment of a dedicated facility by the NCS to cater for the needs of women engaged in cross-border trade along the corridor.
He said the facility would support simplified procedures for small consignments, provide clear information in languages spoken by traders, create accessible points of contact and provide a channel for reporting mistreatment and informal demands.
He said the success of economic integration between Nigeria and Benin would ultimately be measured by the ease with which goods and people move across the border.
He said a truck conveying goods from Cotonou to Lagos should be able to clear the border once instead of twice, while small-scale traders should be able to cross within hours rather than spending an entire day at the border.
Also speaking, the Director-General of Benin Customs, Col. Raouf Malehossou Aboudou, commended Nigeria for the initiative, saying greater integration of trade procedures between the two countries was critical to regional economic growth.
Aboudou said closer Customs cooperation would facilitate legitimate trade while strengthening controls against illicit activities along the border.
He said the Customs Declaration Exchange System (CDES) would enable both administrations to access information submitted by traders in real time, thereby reducing stress for travellers and other users of the joint border post.
According to him, the system would also support coordinated risk management, which he described as one of the core values of the World Customs Organisation.
Aboudou also praised Adeniyi, who currently chairs the World Customs Organisation, describing him as a strong advocate of intra-African trade and Customs modernisation across West Africa and the continent.
The event brought together representatives of government and security agencies, Afreximbank, traditional rulers, community leaders, licensed Customs agents and other stakeholders from both countries.
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