Nigeria’s Unified Customs Management System (UCMS), known as B’Odogwu, designed to modernise trade operations and enhance efficiency, has earned regional validation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
During a visit to the Ports and Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML) Command in Lagos, where the UCMS was first piloted, the ECOWAS Regional Trade Facilitation Committee (RTFC) commended the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for deploying a homegrown platform to ease trade operations and help make and save money.
“What Nigeria has been doing is evolving with the times,” said Kolawole Sofola, ECOWAS director of trade. “They have moved from one system to another and now to this current homegrown platform. It’s a very good practice we’ve noted as a regional trade facilitation committee.”
So far, over N230 billion has been collected via the platform.
Read also: B’Odogwu not just a revenue driver, but a money saver – Daniyan
In an earlier engagement with members of the Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN), Tenny Daniyan, the Customs Area Controller of PTML, described B’Odogwu as more than just a revenue tool, calling it a cost-saving asset that allows Customs to operate without foreign support.
“This is our baby,” he told journalists. “We don’t need a third party. It is fully Nigerian. Unlike NICIS, where you have to translate and send issues abroad, B’Odogwu lets us handle everything in-house. That alone saves the country billions in potential capital flight.”
Daniyan said the system is robust enough to enable one-hour cargo clearance for compliant traders, and that over 90 percent of the technical challenges encountered during the pilot have been resolved.
Now live in 34 Customs commands across the country, B’Odogwu is designed to improve cargo classification, automate compliance checks, and reduce smuggling by flagging suspicious declarations in real time.
ECOWAS said Nigeria’s experience offers a promising model for neighbouring countries seeking to modernise port processes and deepen regional trade.
