The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has signed a 20-year, $3.1bn concession agreement with Nigerian technology company Bergmans Security Consultants and Supplies Limited to modernise customs administration across Africa.

The agreement, signed in Abuja on August 6, will support implementation of the AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project, which is intended to deploy digital technologies and physical infrastructure to harmonise customs systems, reduce border delays and improve revenue collection across participating countries.

AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene signed on behalf of the Secretariat, while Bergmans Chairman Saleh Ahmadu represented the company.

Mene said about 50 African countries had already signed on to the initiative, which is intended to provide the technological infrastructure needed to implement AfCFTA protocols on customs harmonisation and trade facilitation.

"The Nigerian experience demonstrated that technology can transform customs administration. The success recorded gave the AfCFTA Secretariat the confidence to replicate the model across the continent," Mene said, according to The Punch.

Bergmans will finance the full $3.1bn investment under the concession and deploy digital and physical customs infrastructure across participating countries, Ahmadu said.

The project is expected to include non-intrusive cargo inspection technology, integrated data centres and multilingual customs portals designed to allow different national customs systems to exchange information and process cross-border declarations more efficiently.

The concession follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the AfCFTA Secretariat and Bergmans in July. At the time, officials said implementation would initially focus on at least six African countries before expanding across the continent.

The project draws on Bergmans' work on Nigeria's customs modernisation programme. Mene said the Nigerian system had improved cargo clearance, transparency and revenue collection and provided a model that could be adapted for wider African use.

AfCFTA began trading in January 2021 and aims to create a single continental market by progressively reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers and improving the movement of goods and services between African economies.