The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Cameroon Customs Administration have begun a joint assessment of the Ekok-Mfum One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) as part of efforts to ease cross-border trade, strengthen border security and deepen regional economic integration.
The high-level exercise, held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, was themed “Leveraging the Nigeria Customs Service Trade Modernisation Project to Advance Seamless Cross-Border Trade and Shared Prosperity”.
It brought together customs chiefs, technical experts, security agencies, development partners and community leaders from both countries to examine ways of improving the efficiency of operations at the strategic border crossing.
Speaking at the exercise, Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Adewale Adeniyi, stressed the long-standing cooperation between the two customs administrations, noting that geographical proximity had not translated into seamless movement of people and goods.
“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.
He acknowledged the support of the African Development Bank, ECOWAS, ECCAS, Afreximbank and the AfCFTA Secretariat towards strengthening cross-border trade and regional integration.
Benchmarking Border Operations
Adeniyi disclosed that officials from both customs administrations had recently undertaken a study tour of the Beitbridge Border Post between South Africa and Zimbabwe to draw lessons from its operations and identify practices that could be adapted to the Mfum-Ekok corridor.
He said technical teams from both countries were now working towards finalising a joint operational agreement, which is expected to be signed at the forthcoming C-PACT conference.
The agreement is expected to provide a framework for closer operational coordination and more efficient border management between the two countries.
Director-General of Cameroon Customs, Fongod Nuvaga, described the joint assessment as the first concrete step towards achieving unified border operations.
He called for greater emphasis on real-time data sharing and joint risk-management systems, arguing that traders and travellers should be processed once rather than subjected to repetitive checks by agencies on both sides of the border.
Digitising Mfum-Ekok
The exercise also culminated in the launch of the Mfum-Ekok Border Modernisation Initiative, designed to transform the way customs and related border processes are handled at the crossing.
The initiative, driven by trade technology experts, will focus on digitising customs workflows, optimising border infrastructure and creating new economic opportunities along the corridor.
The project is expected to support the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by reducing delays, improving the movement of legitimate goods and strengthening cooperation between Nigeria and Cameroon.
The joint effort ultimately seeks to turn the Mfum-Ekok border from a point of friction into a more efficient gateway for trade, mobility and regional economic integration.