The Nigeria Customs Service and the Benin Republic Customs Administration have launched SIGMAT connectivity between both countries to digitalise and harmonise cross-border trade.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, announced this on Monday while addressing journalists at the Seme-Kraoke Joint Border Post.

SIGMAT, which stands for “Système Interconnecté de Gestion des Marchandises en Transit” in French, is an Economic Community of West African States project that aims to facilitate trade and transport within the region by implementing an interconnected system for managing goods in transit.

It creates a digital network for customs authorities in ECOWAS member states to share information on goods moving across borders, streamlining procedures and reducing delays.

Adeniyi explained that the launch marks a major milestone in Nigeria and the Benin Republic’s “collective pursuit of seamless trade integration and regional economic transformation across West Africa.”

He lauded the Director-General of the Customs Administration of the Benin Republic for the collaboration to address cross-border issues affecting the two customs administrations.

“I want to welcome you all to the official launch of the SIGMAT connectivity between our two countries. What we are doing today marks a major milestone in our collective pursuit of seamless trade integration and regional economic transformation across West Africa,” Adeniyi said.

Giving details of the platform, he stated that it is aimed at digitalising and harmonising customs transit operations across many states.

“The concept was conceived over a decade ago, and the electronic platform was designed to achieve several objectives,” he said. The CGC added that the idea also intends to improve the visibility of goods in transit.

“We want to combat diversion and fraud along the Nigeria-Benin Corridor. We also want to use the platform to foster inter-agency coordination and collaboration between us and our stakeholders,” he said.

According to him, the implementation of SIGMAT has started with its deployments in several African states, like, “Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, Ghana, and Togo with the support and assistance of the Economic Community of West African States Commission and the German Development Corporation GIZ.”

He maintained that SIGMAT reflects a strategic ambition to align with regional digital customs standards and the modernisation of the trade corridor.

He admitted that in the process of launching the platform, the service encountered some challenges.

“But the most important one is that we will have to do more robust training and sensitisation of our stakeholders. We will have to put in place a robust stakeholder engagement to ensure that we carry not only those economic operators but also other agencies of government that will be involved in this,” he said.

Adeniyi added that the service is looking forward to expanding the deployments of SIGMAT to additional border locations.

“We would be strengthening bilateral communication mechanisms to ensure timely technical engagements between our customs administrations. Very importantly, we will look forward to collaborating with GIZ and ECOWAS on capacity-building programs and centralisation of stakeholders,” Adeniyi stressed.

He underscored the importance of continuous engagement with the ECOWAS SIGMAT Steering Committee to share lessons learned and support other members in their implementation journey.

“Our launch today is more than just a technical achievement. It is a powerful demonstration of regional solidarity and institutional leadership. I urge us all to harness the momentum of this milestone to transform our trade corridors into engines of prosperity, security, and opportunity for the people of West Africa,” he said.

Earlier, the DG of the Benin Republic Customs Administration, Adidjatou Zanouvi, explained that SIGMAT will facilitate the movement of goods and also help fight against fraud that is frustrating seamless trans-border trade.

We are here today for the technical launch of the SIGMAT platform, which is a very important milestone for the cooperation and the interoperability between Benin and Nigerian Customs. It will facilitate the movement of goods and also will help our customs services to fight against any fraud,” Zanouvi said.