Nigeria: In Historic Milestone, AfCFTA Adopts Nigeria's PPP Model for $3.1bn Customs Modernisation Drive

What the report says

Nigeria’s Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission says an African trade project is using Nigeria’s public-private partnership framework as a model. The comments, reported by This Day and distributed by AllAfrica, were made in Abuja by ICRC Director-General Jobson Ewalefoh, who said the country’s customs modernisation approach is being adapted for a $3.1 billion AfCFTA customs initiative.

According to the report, the AfCFTA secretariat recently signed a 20-year concession agreement with Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies Limited, the parent company of Trade Modernisation Project Limited. The arrangement is expected to roll out customs modernisation across about 50 member states, supporting trade in a continental market the article describes as covering roughly 1.3 billion people. Ewalefoh said the key development is not only the technology involved, but the decision to replicate the Nigerian PPP structure behind the customs project.

The Nigerian Customs Modernisation Project, also known as the e-Customs Project, was structured as a PPP with the ICRC involved in setting it up and regulating it, the article says. Its digital platform, B’Odogwu, has been used in Nigeria’s customs operations. Ewalefoh portrayed the AfCFTA move as evidence that a locally designed and regulated Nigerian model can be exported to other African countries.

More broadly, the article presents the deal as part of a wider debate over infrastructure financing in Africa, where governments often seek private capital and technical expertise for large projects. It also notes Ewalefoh’s emphasis that institutional resistance, rather than funding alone, can slow reform.