To Deepen Intra-Africa Trade, Nigeria, Benin Launch SIGMAT

In order to deepen trading between the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Benin Republic Customs Administration, on Monday, moved to digitalise and harmonise cross-border trade among both countries.

To this end, the two Customs administrations launched SIGMAT connectivity to facilitate trade between both countries.

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

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

Speaking during the launch of SIGMAT at the Seme-Kraoke Joint Border Post, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, explained that the launch of SIGMAT Connectivity marked a major milestone in Nigeria and Benin Republic’s collective pursuit of seamless trade integration and regional economic transformation across West Africa.

According to Adeniyi, the launch of SIGMAT would lead to the pursuit of seamless trade integration and regional economic transformation across West Africa.

“What we are doing today marks a major milestone in our collective pursuit of seamless trade integration and regional economic transformation across West Africa. I’m sure you have heard a little bit of the historical context of this project which is aimed at digitising and harmonizing Customs transit operations across many states.

“The concept was conceived over a decade ago and the platform, the electronic platform, was designed to achieve a number of objectives. Primarily we want 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.

“We want to simplify the procedures at the borders and by doing so, we want to reduce delays most importantly because we believe that trade fosters revenue and prosperity, we want to enhance free facilitation between our two different countries.”

The Customs helmsman said implementation of SIGMAT has started with deployments in Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Ghana and Togo

He also stated further that SIGMAT reflects a strategic ambition to align with regional digital Customs standards and modernisation trade corridors.

“Implementation of this has started with deployments in a number of African states, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Ghana and Togo with the support and assistance of the ECOWAS Commission and the German Development Corporation, GIZ.

“For us in Nigeria, SIGMAT reflects our strategic ambition to align with regional digital Customs standards and modernization of our trade corridor. We are happy that we have some achievements that we can highlight, which include the development of the SIGMAT application which is currently standing alone and tailored for the Nigerian Customs landscape, the successful testing of real-life transit messages exchanged between us in Nigeria and our colleagues in the Republic of Benin, the marking and the harmonization of entry and exit itineraries at this particular border station, the establishment of direct connectivity to the ECOWAS electronic hub, ensuring regional interoperability and the strengthening of collaboration between our Customs administrations through the various technical meetings and consultations have happened over the last months.

“In the process of doing this, we have encountered several challenges and I’m hoping that during the presentation of the SIGMAT application, we will be able to address those challenges.

“As a way forward, Nigeria Customs Service is looking ahead with a lot of optimism and we believe that shortly, we will be able to expand the deployments of SIGMAT to additional border locations, particularly places like Giro and the new place that we’re planning to develop in Samia.”

“We will look forward to strengthening bilateral communication mechanisms to ensure timely technical engagements between our Customs administrations.”

Speaking earlier, the DG of the Benin Republic Customs Administration, the DG of Benin Republic Customs Administration, Adidjatou Hassan Zanouvi explained that SIGMAT will facilitate the movement of goods and also help fight against fraud 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 because it will facilitate the movement of goods and also will help our Customs Services to fight against any fraud.