The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Customs Administration of Benin Republic have joined forces to address some of the ills associated with the transit of goods between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin.
To this end, NCS and the Customs Administration in the Republic of Benin have expressed their readiness to deploy an interconnected system for the management of goods in transit called SIGMAT.
The successful deployment of SGMAT is expected to address the diversion and fraud along the Nigeria-West corridor which has become a menace and a subject of attrition between the two West African countries over the years
The Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Bashir Adewale Adeniyi at the formal unveiling and deployment of SIGMAT connectivity between the Republic of Benin and Nigeria, Seme Krake Joint Border Post on Monday, May 19, 2025.
Adeniyi also disclosed that the two countries intend to use the platform to foster inter-agency coordination and collaboration between both nations while also addressing cross-border issues affecting the two Customs Administrations.
His words: “SIGMAT is aimed at digitalizing and harmonizing Customs transit operations across our member states. The concept was conceived over a decade ago and the electronic platform was designed to achieve these objectives. Primarily, we want to improve the visibility of goods in transit.
“We want to combat diversion and fraud along the Abidjan-Lagos highway corridor. We also want to use the platform to foster inter-agency coordination and collaboration between us. And for our stakeholders, we want to simplify the procedures at the borders and by so doing, we want to reduce delays”.
Adeniyi noted that SIGMAT is Nigeria’s strategic ambition to align with regional digital customs standards and to modernize the globalization of our trade portfolio just as he added that in the near future, we will be able to expand the deployments of SIGMAT to additional border locations, particularly in places like Idiroko and others.
“We will look forward to strengthening bilateral communication mechanisms to ensure timely technical engagements between our agencies and our institutions. And most importantly, we want to make sure that trade fosters revenue and prosperity. We want to enhance trade facilitation between our two countries,” he added.
The Director General of the Benin Republic Customs Administration, Mrs. Adidjatou Hassan Zanouvi disclosed that the platform will go a long way in reducing delay and enhancing trade facilitation between both countries.
Her words: “The technical launch for 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 move of the goods and also will help our customs services to fight against any fraud, have an exclusivity in collecting revenue and also facilitate trade.
“The system will really solidify and facilitate the movement of the goods from Abidjan, which is already in the SIGMAT system from Abidjan, all the way to Benin and then to Nigeria, and also when goods are coming from Nigeria to use the corridor, SIGMAT”
