The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Benin Republic Customs Administration have concluded arrangements to transform the Sèmè–Kraké joint border post between Nigeria and Benin Republic into a technology-driven model which will be treated as a strategic border modernisation programme rather than a collection of isolated repairs.
The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi disclosed this at Seme border on Friday, September 11, 2026; during the joint Nigeria-Benin Republic one stop border post assessment and commissioning tagged: ‘Leveraging the Nigeria Customs Service Trade Modernisation Project To Advance Seamless Cross-Border Trade and Shared Prosperity,’ carried out alongside his counterpart, the Directeur Général of Benin Customs, Col. Raouf Malehhossou Aboudou.
The Customs boss said the objective was aimed at transforming the facility into a model, technology-enabled Joint Border Post anchored on Customs interconnectivity, joint risk management, coordinated enforcement, secure infrastructure, harmonised procedures and accountable joint governance.
“What we seek to achieve here is that Sèmè–Kraké be treated as a strategic border modernisation programme, and not as a series of isolated repairs,” he said.
He added that achieving the objective at Sèmè–Kraké would provide a template for modernising other border crossings across the region.
According to him, the existing facility has the necessary physical infrastructure, including lanes, parking areas, offices, a weighbridge and scanner housing, noting that the two Customs administrations are yet to operate on a fully integrated system.
“Without interconnectivity, this is not a joint border post. It is two border posts sharing a car park,” Adeniyi said.
He explained that the NCS is working to close the systems gap through a common data exchange arrangement with Benin Customs, which would allow declarations lodged on one side to be visible to the other in real time.
The system, he said, would also facilitate the tracking of transit cargo from origin to destination and ensure that risk profiles and enforcement alerts generated by one administration reach its counterpart while they remain useful.
Adeniyi said the modernisation programme would also require the restoration of scanning capability, strengthened access control, surveillance and lighting, as well as the establishment of a standing Nigeria-Benin enforcement and intelligence mechanism.
He called for harmonised bilingual standard operating procedures covering cargo, passengers, inspection, transit and incident escalation, alongside joint risk management and a properly empowered joint management structure for shared infrastructure.
The NCS boss also announced the launch of a dedicated facility to address the needs of women traders operating along the corridor, with simplified procedures for small consignments, information in languages spoken by traders, accessible points of contact and a channel for reporting poor treatment.
He said the initiative was aimed at bringing more women traders into the formal system, while reducing harassment, extortion and delays at the border.
Adeniyi said the initiative forms part of the broader objective of making the Sèmè–Kraké crossing more efficient, transparent and responsive to the needs of legitimate trade.
Speaking further, CG Adeniyi recalled that just 3 days ago, “we were at another border, at Mfum–Ekok, with our colleagues from Cameroon. I say that because the contrast is instructive. There, we were opening a conversation between two regions. Here, we are not opening anything. Nigeria and Benin have been one economic space for as long as there has been commerce on this coast, and the border we are standing on runs for 809 kilometres through families, markets and languages that were never divided by it.”
The Directeur Général of Benin Customs, Col. Raouf Malehhossou Aboudou, however expressed support for the Nigeria Customs Service’s efforts to recalibrate joint operations at the Seme-Krake border to facilitate trans-border trade.
Aboudou commended the CGC for what he described as pragmatism and purposefulness in reinventing operational systems to improve cross-border trade.
He assured that the Benin Customs administration would vigorously support the new initiative, adding that his officers and personnel are ready to work with their Nigerian counterparts to achieve the objectives of the joint effort.
His position highlights the importance of stronger bilateral Customs cooperation to the effective operation of the Seme-Krake corridor, where developments on one side of the border have direct implications for trade facilitation and enforcement activities on the other.
The Seme Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Abdullahi Shuaibu Kaila, expressed the command’s commitment to supporting efforts to enhance seamless cross-border trade between Nigeria and Benin Republic.
Kaila, in his welcome address, commended the CGC, and his Benin Republic counterpart for their commitment to taking cross-border trade at the Seme-Krake corridor to a new level of renewed energy and vitality.
He said the commitment of both Customs administrations was critical to improving operations at the strategic border crossing, which plays a significant role in Nigeria’s trade relationship with Benin Republic and the wider West African market.
The renewed operational framework places on the Seme Command the responsibility of facilitating legitimate trade while maintaining border security, protecting government revenue and enforcing applicable restrictions.
Speaking further, CGC Adeniyi pointed out that Nigeria and Benin Republic belong to the same Community, highlighting that they enjoy the same protocols on free movement which binds them, emphasizing that the same Trade Liberalisation Scheme governs what crosses between the two countries, saying that Nigeria is today the largest trading partner of the Republic of Benin.
He also made reference to the immediate past President of Benin Republic- President Talon, quoting him as saying during the West Africa Economic Summit last year that “our two countries are more than twins, that we are the same people,” pointing out that he was not making a diplomatic courtesy, but was stating an economic fact that anybody standing at this gate can observe for themselves.
“That is why the work here is different in kind from the work elsewhere. At most borders the task is to build cooperation. Here the task is to let an integration that already exists in practice express itself in procedure.”
He also stated that in June last year, at the same West Africa Economic Summit in Abuja, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and President Patrice Talon witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), committing both countries to deeper bilateral trade and full integration, and instructed our Ministers to carry it into effect.
“In August, at Cotonou, that instruction became a framework built on four pillars, one of which is Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation. And in June this year His Excellency President Romuald Wadagni made Nigeria the destination of his first bilateral visit after assuming office. So, the political blessing is not in doubt, and it has not been given once but repeatedly, at the highest level, by successive administrations in both countries. What remains is delivery, and delivery to a border is a technical matter. That is our part of the work, and it is the reason both Customs administrations are standing here this morning.”
He noted that Sèmè–Kraké sits on the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor, which carries in the order of 70 per cent of the whole sub-region’s transit trade.
According to him, it is among the busiest land crossings in West Africa and, by many accounts, on the African continent.
“It operates around the clock, every day of the year. A corridor of that weight does not fail quietly. Every hour lost at this gate is multiplied across thousands of consignments and tens of thousands of travelers, and is paid for in the price of goods in markets from Cotonou to Lagos. Conversely, an hour saved here is saved for the whole region. There are few places on this continent where the ratio between effort and effect is as favourable as it is at this crossing.”
Going through memory lane, he said that this Joint Border Post has a long history, and it is worth recalling it, because it explains precisely what is still missing.
Accoding to CG Adeniyi, the decision that produced it was taken by the Authority of Heads of State and Government at Dakar in 2003, under the ECOWAS Road Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme.
He added that construction began in 2011, while the European Union financed it under the Tenth European Development Fund for ECOWAS and UEMOA, at a cost of some 18.29 million euros, across a site of 17 hectares.
“It was commissioned in October 2018 by President Buhari and President Talon. In 2022 both governments signed a bilateral agreement on its operationalisation. So, the buildings were delivered. The lanes, the parking, the offices, the weighbridge, the scanner housing, all of it was delivered, and much of it to a good standard. What was never delivered was the thing that makes a joint border post joint. Two administrations presently work under one
roof, but they do not work on one system. There is still no seamless real-time exchange of declarations, manifests, transit information, risk profiles or enforcement alerts between us. In plain terms and at the heart of my remarks is the established fact that, without interconnectivity, this is not a joint border post. It is two border posts sharing a car park. The concrete was the easy part, and it was finished 8 years ago. The integration is the hard part, and it is the part that Customs alone can deliver.”
Adeniyi explained that this is why the Nigeria Customs Service has come to Sèmè–Kraké with a specific offer.
“We are here to close the systems gap. Work is under way on the interconnection of our 2 administrations through a common data exchange arrangement, building on the regional transit experience we have both gained, so that a declaration lodged on one side is visible on the other in real time, so that transit can be tracked from origin to destination, and so that a risk profile or an enforcement alert raised by one administration reaches the other while it is still useful. Our joint assessment has identified what must accompany that. Scanning capability requires restoration, so that examination rests on images rather than on opening every crate. Access control, surveillance and lighting require strengthening. We need a standing Nigeria–Benin enforcement and intelligence mechanism for coordinated patrols and rapid response. We need harmonised bilingual standard operating procedures covering cargo, passengers, inspection, transit and incident escalation.
We need joint risk management, so that resources concentrate on high-risk consignments instead of seek to solve when we document these milestones with our Counterparts from Cameroon, (Benin and Nigeria) in Abuja in November 2026 at the opening of the CPAT 2026.”
He thanked the Government of the Republic of Benin, the ECOWAS Commission, the European Union, the AfCFTA Secretariat and Afreximbank for what had been built and for what is still being built.
He also thanked the officers of both administrations who worked this crossing daily, and the traditional leadership and people of this community for their goodwill.
