AFCFTA: Customs Facilitates First Shipment from Nigeria to Kenya.

By Joe Njoku,
Global Freight News.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has facilitated Nigeria’s first shipment to Kenya, with Lucky Fibres, a subsidiary of the Tolaram Group, becoming one of the first companies to ship goods to Kenya under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA).

During the visit to the Apapa Customs Command recently, to ensure proper documentation and verification of the shipment, Olusegun Olutayo, senior Trade Expert and Lead of Trade Enablement at the Nigeria AFCFTA Coordination office, noted that the shipment from Nigeria to Kenya, specifically to the port of Mombasa, demonstrates the collaborative spirit of AFCFTA.

“It is not that we are doing it alone, I have already sent a message to the Secretariat in Ghana that there will be a shipment under AFCFTA to Kenya. So this is the spirit that we are building to ensure that we increase Intra-African Trade,” he stated.

However, he emphasised the critical role of the Service as the Designated Competent Authority (DCA) under AFCFTA, leveraging its expertise to ensure seamless trade.

“The Nigeria Customs Service has been fantastic; they ready to facilitate trade. Once they hear that there is an issue, particularly around AFCFTA, you will see everybody ready to support and facilitate it, which is essence of Trade Facilitation”.

Assistant Comptroller Olusola Salako, the releasing officer for Lilypond Export Command at Apapa Apapa Area Command, highlighted the service’s efforts to leverage technology to ensure that AFCFTA is successful in Africa.

“The Service has aligned with the mandates of the World Customs Organization to prioritise the importance of Trade. Gone are the days when we experienced issues. Today, We have a Unified Customs Management System (UCMS). With trade becoming more global, we went back to the drawing board and improved our technology, which will help us facilitate trade.
The service is already in top gear as officers have been trained, and we have dedicated officers, senior officers, and releasing officers for this particular export procedure, not limited to AFCFTA alone. We also have dedicated ports, he concluded