…Launch SIGMAT technology
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Benin Republic Customs Administration on Monday moved to digitalise and harmonise cross-border trade with the launch of the SIGMAT connectivity between the two countries.
Speaking during the launch in Seme-Kraoke Joint Border Post, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi explained that the SIGMAT Connectivity launch marks a major milestone in Nigeria and Benin Republic collective pursuit of seamless trade integration and regional economic transformation across West Africa.
He said, “It gives me pleasure to be here in Seme this morning and I am indeed very glad to start by acknowledging the gesture of my colleague, the DG of the Customs Administration of Benin Republic to work together for our collective efforts which we have taken to address cross-border issues affecting the two Customs Administrations.
“I want to welcome you all to the official launch of the SIGMAT connectivity between our two countries. 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 digitalizing and harmonizing Customs transit operations across many states.
The concept, he said, 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 so doing, we want to reduce delays and, most importantly, because we believe that trade fosters revenue and prosperity, we want to enhance free facilitation between our two different countries.
“Implementation of this has started with deployments in several African states, Niger, Cote 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 the modernisation of our trade corridor.
“While we are happy that we have some achievements that we can highlight, which includes the development of the SIGMAT application which is currently standing alone and tailored for Nigerian Customs landscape, the successful testing of real-life transit message exchanged between us in Nigeria and our colleagues in the Republic of Benin, the marking and the harmonisation 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, the CGC said, “We have encountered some challenges, and I’m hoping that during the presentation of the SIGMAT application, we will be able to address those challenges.
“But the most important one is that we will have to do more robust training and sensitisation of our stakeholders. 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.
“As a way forward, Nigeria Customs Service is looking ahead with a lot of optimism, and we believe that soon, 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.
“Very importantly, we will look forward to collaborating with GIZ and ECOWAS on capacity-building programs and centralisation of stakeholders.
“Of course, as we deploy these pilots, we will look forward to establishing a task force that will be charged with the responsibility of monitoring deployments, reporting successes and challenges that we have.
“For governance, we will continue to engage with the ECOWAS SIGMAT Steering Committee to share lessons learned and support other members in their implementation journey.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our launch today is more than just a technical achievement. It is a powerful demonstration of regional solidarity and institutional leadership. I urge us all to harness the momentum of this milestone to transform our trade corridors into engines of prosperity, security and opportunity for the people of West Africa.”
In his address, 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.
“It will also help in collecting revenue and facilitating trade. The system will solidify and facilitate the movement of goods from Abidjan, which is already in the SIGMAT system, all the way to Benin and then to Nigeria.
“Also, when goods are coming from Nigeria to us via the corridor, SIGMAT will facilitate. So this is why we are here today, and we are really optimistic about what will be, after the launch, how people will use the system, and we are really putting an emphasis on the training, the sensitisation of all the stakeholders,” he said.
This helped a lot—so does https://pdfpanel.com when working with multiple PDFs.