The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Cameroon Customs Administration have commenced a joint assessment of the Ekok-Mfum One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) as part of efforts to eliminate cross-border trade bottlenecks, strengthen border security and promote regional economic integration.
The high-level exercise, held on Tuesday, was themed, “Leveraging the Nigeria Customs Service Trade Modernisation Project to Advance Seamless Cross-Border Trade and Shared Prosperity.”
The assessment brought together customs chiefs, technical experts, security agencies, development partners and community leaders from both countries.
Speaking at the event, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said the exercise was built on the longstanding cooperation between the two customs administrations.
He, however, noted that despite the geographical proximity and strong economic ties between Nigeria and Cameroon, movement of people and goods across the border remained unnecessarily challenging.
“We are not building from nothing. We are taking something that works between the two of us and asking whether it can be made to work for the region and hopefully for our continent,” Adeniyi said.
He acknowledged the contributions of development and regional institutions, including the African Development Bank, ECOWAS, ECCAS, Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat, to efforts aimed at improving cross-border trade.
The NCS boss disclosed that officials from both customs administrations had recently undertaken a study tour of the Beitbridge Border Post between South Africa and Zimbabwe to benchmark international best practices in border management.
According to him, technical teams from both countries are currently working to finalise a joint operational agreement, which is expected to be signed at the forthcoming C-PACT conference.
Also speaking, the Director General of Cameroon Customs, Fongod Nuvaga, described the joint assessment as the first concrete step towards establishing unified border operations between the two countries.
Nuvaga called for greater emphasis on real-time data sharing and joint risk-management systems to ensure that cargo and travellers are processed once, rather than subjected to multiple and duplicative checks.
The exercise also featured the launch of the Mfum-Ekok Border Modernisation Initiative, designed to support the digital transformation of customs operations and improve infrastructure at the border.
Driven by trade technology experts, the initiative seeks to digitise customs workflows, optimise physical infrastructure and create new economic opportunities along the Nigeria-Cameroon trade corridor.
The initiative is expected to contribute to the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by facilitating faster movement of legitimate goods and people while strengthening coordinated border security and enforcement.
The joint assessment underscores the growing efforts by Nigeria and Cameroon to transform the Ekok-Mfum border into a more efficient trade gateway capable of supporting regional commerce and shared economic prosperity.
