The Customs Service of Nigeria (NCS) and the Customs Administration of the Republic of Benin moved to Digitalise on Monday and harmonize cross -border trade with the launch of the SIGMMA connectivity between the two countries.
Speaking on Monday during the launch in the same-Kraoke Joint Border Post, the Comptroller General of the Customs Service of Nigeria, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi explained that the launch of the SIGMMA connectivity marks an important milestone in Nigeria and Benin Republic Republic Pursuit ofingsing Integration and the regional economic transformation into Western Africa.
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Adeniyi said: “I am pleasure to be here in such this morning and I am very happy to start recognizing the gesture of my colleague, the DG of the Customs Administration of Benin Republic to work together for our collective efforts that we have taken to address the cross -border problems that affect the two customs administrations.
“I want to welcome everyone to the official launch of the SIGMA connectivity between our two countries. What we are doing today marks an important milestone in our collective search for commercial integration without problems and regional economic transformation in Western Africa.
“I am sure that he has heard a bit of the historical context of this project that aims to digitize and harmonize customs traffic operations in many states.
“The concept was conceived more than a decade and the platform, the electronic platform, was designed to achieve a series of objectives. We mainly want to improve the visibility of goods in transit. We want to combat the detour and fraud along the Nigeria-Benin corridor. We also want to use the platform to promote coordination between agencies and collaboration between the United States and our slope.
“We want to simplify the procedures in the borders and, in doing so, we want to reduce delays and, most importantly, because we believe that trade encourages income and prosperity, we want to improve free facilitation between our two different countries.
“The implementation of this has begun with deployment in several African states, Niger, Ivory, Mali, Ghana and Togo cost with the support and assistance of the Ecowas Commission and the Girration of German Development.
“For us in Nigeria, Sigmat reflects our strategic ambition to align with regional digital customs standards and the modernization of our commercial corridor.
“While we are happy that we have subduevements that we can highlight, which includes The Development of the Sigmat APPLICATION WHICH IS CURRENLY STANDING ALONE AND TAILORED FOR NIGERIAN CUSTOMS LANDSCAPE, THE SUCCESSFUL TESTING OF REAL-LEF Between Us in Nigeria and Our Colleagues in the Republic of Benin, The Marking and the Harmonization of Entry and Exit ITINARIES AT O Technical consultations have occurred in recent months.
“In the process of doing this, we have found a series of challenges and I hope that during the presentation of the Sigmat application, we can address those challenges.
“But the most important is that we will have to make a stronger training and sensitization of our interested parties. We will have to implement a solid commitment of the interested parties to ensure that we have not only those economic operators but also to other government agencies that will participate in this.
“As a path to follow, Nigeria's customs service is looking towards the future with great optimism and we believe that in the near future, we can expand the Sigmat deployments to additional border locations, particularly places like Giro and the new place we plan to develop in Samia.
“We will expect to strengthen bilateral communication mechanisms to guarantee timely technical commitments between our customs administrations.
“Very important, we hope to collaborate with GIZ and ECOWAS in capacities development programs and the centralization of interested parties.
“Of cause, as we implement these pilots, we hope to establish a working group that is charged for the responsibility of monitoring implementations, informing the successes and challenges we have.
“For the purposes of governance, we will continue to involve the Ecowas Sigmat Steering Committee to share lessons learned and support other members on their implementation trip.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our launch today is more than a technical achievement. It is a powerful demonstration of regional solidarity and institutional leadership. I urge everyone to take advantage of the impulse of this milestone to transform our commercial corridors into prosperity, security and opportunities for the people of Western Africa.”
Speaking above, the DG of the Customs Administration of the Republic of Benin, the DG of the Customs Administration of Benin Republic, Adidjatou Hassan Zanouvi explained that Sigmat will facilitate the movement of goods and will also help fight against frustrating fraud of a transfer trade.
“We are here today for the technical launch OG the Sigmat platform, which is a very important milestone for cooperation and interoperability between Benin and Nigerian customs, because it will facilitate the movement of goods and also help our customs services to fight against any fraud.
“It will also help raise income and also facilitate trade. The system will really solidify and facilitate the movement of assets of Abidjan, which is already in the Sigmat system, to Benin and then to Nigeria.
“In addition, when the goods come from Nigeria to us through the corridor, Sigmat will facilitate. So that is why we are here today, and we are really optimistic about what will be, after launch, how people will use the system, and we are really emphasizing training, the awareness of all interested parties,” said the administration of the Benin Republic DG administration.
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