The Customs administrations of Nigeria and Benin Republic have intensified efforts to simplify cross-border trade through a joint assessment of the One-Stop Border Post at Sèmè-Kraké.
The exercise, conducted on Friday, is aimed at deepening regional economic integration, reducing trade barriers and improving the movement of legitimate goods and services between the two countries.
Speaking during the assessment in the Sèmè-Kraké border town, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, said the exercise was designed to evaluate the operational readiness of the border and examine existing processes and facilities.
Adeniyi said the assessment would also demonstrate the Border Modernisation solution being developed to support secure interoperability between the Nigerian and Beninese Customs administrations.
He described the Sèmè-Kraké crossing as a critical point along the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, which he said handles about 70 per cent of the region’s transit trade. According to him, the border is among the busiest land crossings in West Africa and operates around the clock throughout the year.
The Customs chief said delays at the crossing have consequences beyond the immediate border, affecting thousands of consignments and travellers and ultimately influencing the cost of goods in markets across the region.
“Every hour lost at this gate is multiplied across thousands of consignments and tens of thousands of travellers,” Adeniyi said, stressing that reducing delays could produce benefits across the wider region.
He, however, identified the absence of a seamless real-time information exchange between the two Customs administrations as a major challenge.
According to him, the agencies currently operate under the same roof but do not yet operate on a common system that allows real-time sharing of declarations, manifests, transit information, risk profiles and enforcement alerts.
Adeniyi said Nigeria Customs was working to address the gap through a common data exchange arrangement between the two administrations.
He explained that the proposed system would allow declarations submitted on one side of the border to become visible to the other in real time. It would also support transit tracking from origin to destination and ensure that risk assessments and enforcement alerts could be shared while they remained useful.
The Customs chief also highlighted the importance of informal cross-border traders, particularly women, in the regional economy.
He noted that women account for more than 70 per cent of informal cross-border traders across Africa. He added that about 22 per cent of Benin’s informal exports are destined for Nigeria, while informal trade accounts for an estimated one-fifth of economic activity in Nigeria and a substantially higher proportion in Benin.
Adeniyi commended the Benin Customs administration for its confidence in Nigeria Customs’ leadership in advancing the One-Stop Border Post initiative.
The Director-General of Benin Customs, Raouf Malehossou, also praised Nigeria for taking steps towards greater trade integration across the sub-region.
Malehossou said stronger coordination between the two countries’ Customs administrations would contribute to regional economic growth and improve the efficiency of cross-border commerce.
