The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS and the Cameroon Customs Administration have begun a joint assessment of the Ekok-Mfum One-Stop Border Post, OSBP as part of efforts to reduce delays in cross-border trade and strengthen security along the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
The assessment, held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, brought together customs officials, technical experts, security agencies, development partners and community representatives from both countries.
The exercise was conducted under the theme, “Leveraging the Nigeria Customs Service Trade Modernisation Project to Advance Seamless Cross-Border Trade and Shared Prosperity.”
Speaking at the event, Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said the initiative was aimed at building on existing cooperation between the two customs administrations while addressing persistent difficulties faced by traders and travellers crossing the border.
He said the proximity between Nigeria and Cameroon had not translated into sufficiently seamless movement of people and goods, stressing the need to improve existing arrangements.
“We are not building from nothing. We are taking something that works between the two of us and asking whether it can be made to work for the region and hopefully for our continent,” Adeniyi said.
The Customs chief said the initiative had received support from institutions including the African Development Bank, ECOWAS, ECCAS, Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat.
He also disclosed that officials from both countries had undertaken a study tour of the Beitbridge Border Post between South Africa and Zimbabwe to examine practices that could be adapted to improve operations at Mfum-Ekok.
According to him, technical teams from the two administrations are working to conclude a joint operational agreement, which is expected to be signed at the forthcoming C-PACT conference.
Director General of Cameroon Customs, Fongod Nuvaga, described the assessment as a major step towards developing unified border operations between the two countries.
Nuvaga called for real-time data sharing and joint risk-management systems to enable goods and travellers to undergo coordinated processing rather than repeated checks by agencies on both sides of the border.
The exercise also culminated in the launch of the Mfum-Ekok Border Modernisation Initiative, which will focus on digitising customs procedures and improving border infrastructure.
The initiative is expected to support faster processing of cargo and travellers while creating conditions for increased trade and economic activity in the border communities.
The modernisation effort is also being aligned with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), particularly the reduction of barriers to intra-African trade.