The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and regional partners have intensified efforts to formalise cross-border commerce through the Border Information Centre (BIC), positioning it as a key tool for unlocking value in West Africa’s largely informal maritime-linked trade.
At a multi-stakeholder sensitisation and dialogue session along the Seme–Krake axis, regulators, Customs authorities and regional trade bodies urged traders, farmers and logistics operators to leverage the BIC to navigate Nigeria’s land–sea trade interface with Benin Republic and the wider ECOWAS market.
The programme, themed “Trade Now: Empowering Cross-Border Traders through the Trade Information Desk,” drew participants from the Nigeria Customs Service, the ECOWAS Commission, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), International Trade Centre (ITC), private sector groups and cross-border trade associations.
Ify Okolue, Director of Consumer Affairs at the NSC, described the BIC as a strategic response to one of the biggest constraints in cross-border trade, lack of reliable information.
“The Border Information Center is a practical instrument designed to improve transparency and efficiency in cross-border trade,” she said. “It provides traders with accurate information on tariffs, documentation requirements, import and export procedures, standards, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and other regulatory obligations.”
Okolue said Seme was deliberately chosen because of its economic importance as a gateway linking Nigerian seaports to inland markets across Benin and beyond.
She added that the initiative aligns with the Council’s mandate as Nigeria’s port economic regulator, extending its oversight beyond seaports to inland transport corridors where logistics inefficiencies inflate trade costs.
According to Okolue, the Council, working with partners including Borderless Alliance, GIZ, ECOWAS and Customs, has established BICs at Seme-Krake (Benin), Jibiya-Maradi (Niger), Illela-Sokoto (Niger) and Mfum (Cameroon). A new centre at Idiroko is expected to become operational before the end of the second quarter of 2026.
Beyond border desks, she highlighted complementary investments such as inland dry ports at Kaduna, Dala and Funtua to decentralise shipping services and support transit trade to land-linked countries including Niger, Chad and Mali. Plans are also underway to develop vehicle transit areas to improve road safety and corridor efficiency.
“These transit areas will enable drivers to rest and continue their journey safely,” she said, noting that fatigue-related incidents contribute significantly to road accidents along trade routes.
Okolue urged traders to use the Council’s complaints and dispute resolution mechanism, available nationwide and online, describing the engagement as both an advocacy and awareness platform.
Representing the Comptroller-General of Customs, Wale Adenuga, Customs Area Controller of Seme Area Command, said the engagement was timely as Customs deepens its trade facilitation agenda.
“One of his major philosophies is trade facilitation,” he said of the Comptroller-General. “If there is trade facilitation, you facilitate what you need to do within 24 hours, your goods are out.”
He assured compliant traders of expedited clearance, adding that legitimate goods destined for Benin could be processed within 48 hours. Adenuga noted that Customs, security agencies and their Beninese counterparts now operate under a unified command structure at Seme, with enforcement focused on illegitimate trade rather than compliant operators.
From a regional policy standpoint, the ECOWAS Commission said information gaps and non-tariff barriers remain major obstacles to intra-regional trade.
Delivering remarks on behalf of ECOWAS Director of Trade Kolawole Sofola, Sarah Opofure said Trade Information Desks are critical to addressing these challenges and curbing harassment and extortion faced by traders.
Despite frameworks such as the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme and the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Sofola noted that informal traders, many of them women and youth, continue to face barriers due to limited access to official procedures.
He added that ECOWAS-led sensitisation caravans and training programmes along key corridors, including the Lagos-Abidjan axis, have reached over 1,800 women and young traders. An agricultural trade project implemented with GIZ has also trained more than 50 Nigerian women traders and provided mobility support.
Speaking earlier, Pius Akutah, NSC Executive Secretary, welcomed what he described as growing uptake of the BIC by traders, expressing optimism that sustained collaboration would lower trade costs and strengthen regional integration.
