By Martha Agas
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) says customs administrations across Africa are crucial partners in data gathering and analysis for trade facilitation.
AfCFTA’s Secretary-General, Wamkele Mene, stated this to newsmen shortly after a closed-door meeting with Bashir Adeniyi, the Comptroller-General (C-G) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at the AfCFTA Headquarters in Accra.
Mene said the partnership was crucial, especially as the AfCFTA Secretariat was not present in every country in Africa.
“We are only here in Accra, and so the challenge of data gathering requires that we work together with customs authorities throughout the continent.
“We collect data so that we know exactly where we are making a difference and exactly where there continues to be a challenge so that we can confront that challenge together.
“Data and statistics gathering will enable us to know with a high degree of certainty what the true percentage of intra-Africa trade.
“This is including what measures to take to improve intra-Africa trade, “ he said.
Mene emphasised the importance of data in implementing the framework of AfCFTA agreement.
He said the AfCFTA was establishing a data-focused committee to support initiatives that promote trade facilitation.
According to him, boosting trade facilitation within Africa required the AfCFTA to partner with the private sector through a structured and well-defined relationship.
Mene added that the collaboration would involve customs authorities, the AfCFTA Secretariat, and AU member states in ensuring that challenges encountered during implementation were tackled jointly with stakeholders.
He acknowledged that challenges such as the cost of transport and logistics, infrastructure costs, and the infrastructure deficit, which the African Development Bank (AfDB) estimated at over 150 billion dollars annually, still affected the sector.
Mene explained that Afreximbank’s introduction of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) was helping to address the challenge of currency convertibility.
According to him, some of the constraints that intra-Africa trade faces are outside AfCFTA’s mandate, but still affect the flow of goods and services across the continent.
Mene also acknowledged the gap in deploying technology in processing trade operations in Africa.
He said agreements were reached on adopting technology to process certificates of origin so that economic operators can have easy access to the required documentation.
He said, “There are over 150 commercial banks that are trading on PAPPS and over 20 central banks that have also granted approval for their commercial banks to be part of the system of PAPPS.
“The original pilot countries were Ghana and Nigeria, even as we are rolling out PAPPS.
“These are some of the initiatives that we are undertaking to digitise trade. In due course, we will establish a continental platform for sharing of information again using digital technologies.
“It is at the fore of deploying digital technology, is at the fore of our strategy for implementation of AfCFTA”.
In his remarks, the NCS C-G said many customs administrations had embraced the use of the single window.
Adeniyi said Nigeria was at the final stage of implementing the national single window for trade in Nigeria, expected to commence by the first quarter of 2026. (NAN)
Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani
