AfCFTA: A Digital Mega-Contract for Customs, but the Real Challenge Lies Elsewhere.

On August 6, 2026, in Abuja, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) reached a major milestone by signing a 20-year, $3.1 billion concession agreement with the Nigerian company Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies, through its subsidiary AfriTrade CMP. The stated goal is ambitious: to roll out a unified digital customs system across 50 member countries, enabling real-time cargo tracking, harmonized cross-border procedures, and stronger action against corruption, revenue leakage, and under- or over-invoicing practices.

Bergmans is drawing on the experience gained through Nigeria's own customs modernization program, which reportedly boosted customs revenue by 90.4%. Deployment will begin in at least six pilot countries before a gradual continent-wide rollout.

While this contract marks undeniable progress, customs modernization alone cannot resolve the structural bottlenecks holding back intra-African trade. As experts Phyllis Wakiaga and Jacqueléne Coetzer point out, several obstacles remain:

● Cross-border payments still depend on hard currencies and costly intermediaries, driving up the cost of trade.

● The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), launched in 2022, currently covers only 19 of 55 countries, limiting its impact.

● Physical logistics remain a major bottleneck: a significant share of goods is still routed through South Africa, Europe, or the Middle East, for lack of adequate infrastructure.

● Political will remains uneven, and protectionist measures continue to hold back genuine integration.

For this system to be truly effective, several conditions must be met:

1. Integrate it with PAPSS and existing national single windows, to avoid a double administrative and financial burden.

2. Accelerate PAPSS expansion to all 55 member states — without full coverage, customs gains risk not translating into a tangible drop in transaction costs.

3. Invest simultaneously in physical infrastructure (roads, ports, clearance capacity). A digital system is useless if trucks still pile up at borders for lack of adequate infrastructure. The Abidjan-Lagos highway, for instance, is a worthwhile investment to continue.

4. Harmonize regulations and standards across countries, beyond customs procedures alone — modernizing customs, however useful, is not enough on its own.

5. Strengthen political will and reduce informal barriers as well as national protectionist reflexes.

As Jacqueléne Coetzer reminds us, the real goal is to build a genuine "integrated continental trading system" — one that goes beyond customs alone to encompass logistics, payments, standards, and production capacity.

Bergmans has proven expertise, notably through its work in Nigeria — a recognized capability. But a project of this scale demands a much broader synergy: one involving African governments, regional integration institutions, development partners, and, above all, local stakeholders in the target countries, to ensure effective, ground-level execution.

Marius C. Oula