Africa’s journey toward seamless cross-border trade reached a decisive turning point as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat selected AfriTrade CMP Limited, a specialized arm of Nigerian enterprise Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited to deploy and manage a $3.1 billion digital customs network across 50 member states over a 20-year concession period.
​The selection earned high praise from State House in Abuja, where Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, issued an official commendation on behalf of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday, August 10, 2026.
​President Tinubu framed the development as a triumphs for his administration’s “Nigeria First” economic initiative, asserting that Nigerian-engineered trade technology is now defining the standards for continental integration. He commended Bergmans’ executive leadership, its technical teams, and the Nigeria Customs Service under Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi for creating the operational template “B’Odogwu” that proved local capacity can effectively scale across Africa.
​The bilateral agreement was executed on Thursday, August 6, 2026, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. AfCFTA Secretariat Secretary-General Wamkele Mene endorsed the contract on behalf of the continental trade body, while Bergmans Chairman Alhaji Saleh Ahmadu signed for the concessionaire.
Project will be financed through a private-public partnership model, the $3.1 billion venture requires zero direct treasury funding from participating nations.
Corporate framework execution across Africa will be led by AfriTrade CMP Limited, drawing on the operational framework established by sister firm Trade Modernisation Project Limited, which currently manages Nigeria’s ongoing domestic trade infrastructure transformation.
The unified platform will service over 50 member nations, interconnecting a market of 1.3 billion consumers boasting a collective Gross Domestic Product of $3.4 trillion.
​Following the signing, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene and members of the Nigerian Senate Committee on Customs, chaired by Senator Jibrin Isah, visited the Nigeria Customs Service Headquarters in Abuja for a strategic briefing.
​Mene emphasized that the decision to partner with the Nigerian conglomerate was driven by tangible outcomes observed in Nigeria’s trade ecosystem notably faster vessel and cargo turnaround times, heightened revenue assurance, and reduced administrative bottlenecks.
​Bergmans Chairman Alhaji Saleh Ahmadu pledged that the company will roll out high-throughput non-intrusive scanning systems, secure data centers, real-time electronic transit tracking, and multilingual trade portals to eliminate non-tariff barriers along major regional transit corridors.
