Nigeria, Benin Customs Deepen Border Security with Geospatial Technology Partnership

Nigeria, Benin Customs Deepen Border Security with Geospatial Technology Partnership

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Customs Administration of the Republic of Benin have strengthened their collaboration on the deployment of geospatial technology to improve border surveillance, combat trans-border crimes and facilitate legitimate trade along the shared border corridor.

The partnership was reinforced during a strategic meeting held at the ECOWAS Conference Hall, Seme-Krake Joint Border Post, aimed at enhancing existing cooperation on border management and economic security.

Speaking at the engagement, the Customs Area Controller of the Seme Area Command, Comptroller Abdullahi Kaila, described the initiative as a significant milestone in improving border security and trade facilitation along one of West Africa’s busiest commercial routes.

According to him, the deployment of geospatial technology will help address longstanding security and operational challenges while boosting revenue generation.

“The Seme border remains one of the region’s most important trading corridors and has experienced several operational challenges. The introduction of this geospatial initiative will improve border management, strengthen surveillance and enhance revenue collection,” Kaila said.

Also speaking, the Head of Geospatial at the Nigeria Customs Service, Deputy Comptroller of Customs Labaran Ahmed, explained that the initiative is designed to pilot the Service’s border management application using the World Customs Organization (WCO) satellite platform.

He said the technology would enable Customs authorities to identify vulnerable border locations and deploy personnel more strategically for intelligence-led operations.

“With this new technology, we can accurately identify vulnerable points along the border and strategically position our officers for more targeted surveillance and effective enforcement operations,” Ahmed stated.

He disclosed that Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo are among the first countries implementing the geospatial border management system under the WCO platform.

According to him, the project’s early success has generated wider interest across Africa, with several Customs administrations seeking to adopt the technology.

“We recently conducted a master-class training, and an additional 19 African countries, including Egypt, Senegal, Kenya and Mali, have indicated interest in adopting the platform to strengthen anti-smuggling operations and improve border security,” he said.

The collaboration is expected to enhance intelligence sharing, strengthen coordinated border operations, improve trade facilitation and support regional efforts to combat smuggling and other transnational crimes across the West African sub-region.

Nigeria, Benin Customs Deepen Border Security with Geospatial Technology Partnership