The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has implemented the Interconnected System for the Management of Goods in Transit (SIGMAT) at the Nigeria-Benin border to digitalise and harmonise cross-border trade connectivity between both countries.

The project, jointly launched with the Benin Republic Customs Administration on Monday at the Seme-Kraoke Joint Border Post, comes after adeacde of preparations, the service noted.

Bashir Adeniyi, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (CGC) said the project is aimed at “aimed at digitalising and harmonising Customs transit operations across many states.”

“The electronic platform was designed…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.

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The system has already been deployed in Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Ghana and Togo with the support and assistance of the ECOWAS Commission and the German Development Corporation GIZ.

The platform will improve visibility of goods in transit, reducing illegal diversions, strengthen inter-agency coordination between Nigeria and Benin Republic, and simplify border procedures cutting down delays for traders.

Customs said it encountered some challenges during the launch of the SIGMAT application and hopes it “will be able to address those challenges,” but is currently prioritising training to integrate officials and avoid errors and knowledge gaps in processing

“The most important one is that we will have to do more robust training and sensitisation of our stakeholders,” Adeniyi said. “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.”