Headlines
Foreign Navies to remain in Gulf of Guinea to hunt pirates till 2024
Accordingly, the EU external action service has proposed to EU member states, in a memo, that France, Italy, and Spain should lead the onslaught by sending ships for eight months each in 2022 to the Gulf of Guinea.
“The region now accounts for just over 95 per cent of all kidnappings for ransom at sea,” it said.
“The risk of PAG (pirate action group)] actions remain high … from Togo to Gabon, with Nigeria as the centre of gravity,” the EU added.
But “none of the coastal navies, with the partial exception of Nigeria, can operate the required high-sea patrol boats to respond to attacks,” the EU said.
Nigeria’s high powered fast intercessor vessel under deep blue project
And the foreign service proposed extending the CMP until 2024.
“If the national appropriate legal framework is in place, pirates will be transferred to the concerned MS [member states] and then prosecuted,” the EU memo suggested.
The EU was building an intelligence-sharing platform linking “more than 300 EU and [Gulf of Guinea]-national authorities with responsibilities in maritime surveillance”.
And Europe wanted to win hearts and minds, including among the “general public”.
EU diplomats were to launch a “strategic communication” campaign, with special events, involving CMP “naval visits” at “ports of call, such as Lagos in Nigeria”.
The EU pilot-mission aside, other Danish, French, Italian, Spanish, and US warships have also done independent patrols in the Gulf of Guinea in recent times.
The oil-rich 2.35 million km2 region, where millions of people lived on less than $1 a day, has become known as “pirate alley”, the Reuters news agency recently reported.
Hostages, hundreds of whom were seized in recent years, were ransomed for up to $300,000, it said.
But prisoners suffered ordeals in “the Niger Delta’s swampy, snaking creeks, where they face malaria, typhoid, and attacks from rival bands of kidnappers”, Reuters’ report, from Lagos, said.
“Possible attacks might focus on targets closer to the Niger Delta …. their [many pirates’] place of origin, enabling them to flee if being intercepted” in future, the EU foreign service noted.
Meanwhile, illegal fishing was also doing “serious damage to the environment” and causing “depletion of fish stocks”, it added.
The region was a “transit zone, but also a destination, of drug trafficking between South America and Europe,” it warned.
And there was “human-trafficking and migrant-smuggling towards other African countries or other regions, especially Europe, via the Canary Islands”, the EU said.
It remained to be seen how well the EU’s ambitions go down in Nigeria, the regional power, however.
Nigeria recently accused Denmark of neocolonialism over an incident, last November, when special-forces soldiers from a Danish frigate shot dead four “pirates”.
And when the same frigate, the Esbern Snare, sent a helicopter to rescue hostages seized by pirates from a Greek-operated container ship, the Tonsberg, in December, Nigeria ordered Denmark’s hot pursuit to halt when the pirate boat entered Nigerian waters.
Zooming out, the EU also has military missions in the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, and Somalia, as well naval ones in the Central Mediterranean and Horn of Africa seas.
But Europe is competing for influence against Russian and wider aggression as well as Chinese buy-outs of strategic assets in Africa.
“The purpose of the CMP [the EU’s West Africa anti-piracy mission] is to increase the EU’s capacity as a reliable maritime security provider,” the EU memo said.
Europe’s flagship anti-piracy operation, Atalanta in the Horn of Africa, has drastically reduced piracy compared to 10 years ago.
But Atalanta, on which CMP was partly modelled, risked being ejected from Somalia’s waters, in a setback to Western efforts to counter piracy in the area, another EU memo from 5 January revealed.
EU pilot mission in the Gulf of Guinea was partly modelled on Atalanta operation in the Horn of Africa.
Customs
Tinubu hails Nigeria’s Customs model as AfCFTA picks local firm for $multi-billion project
Bergmans subsidiary wins 20-year continental customs modernisation contract
Gloria Odion, Maritme reporter
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has hailed the emergence of Nigeria’s homegrown Customs modernisation model as a continental benchmark following the selection of a subsidiary of Nigerian-owned Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited to execute a 20-year, multi-billion-dollar AfCFTA Customs Modernisation Project.
The development, according to the President, represents a major vote of confidence in Nigeria’s growing capacity to develop indigenous technology and expertise capable of powering Africa’s emerging trade architecture.
The project will be implemented by AfriTrade CMP Limited, a subsidiary of Bergmans, and is expected to deploy digital and physical infrastructure for customs processing, cargo tracking, border management and trade-data exchange across participating African countries.
Tinubu’s commendation was contained in a State House statement issued yesterday, Monday, August 10th, 2026, by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
The President said the continental deal was particularly significant because another subsidiary of Bergmans, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, is already implementing Nigeria’s Customs Modernisation Programme in partnership with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
He described the development as evidence that solutions developed and tested in Nigeria could now be scaled across the continent.
“What has been built and tested in Nigeria is now providing a model for the continent. This is how African integration should work: Africans building African solutions for African markets,” Tinubu said.
He added that Nigerian institutions and businesses could play a pivotal role in building the technology and infrastructure required to make the African Continental Free Trade Area work effectively.
“Under our Nigeria First policy, we will continue to create opportunities for capable Nigerian businesses to compete at home, across Africa and globally,” the President said.
Tinubu specifically commended Bergmans, AfriTrade CMP Limited, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and Nigerian professionals whose work, he said, had earned continental confidence.
The President said the development also reflected the transformation taking place within the Nigeria Customs Service under Adeniyi, particularly in the areas of digitalisation, institutional reform, trade facilitation and indigenous technology deployment.
AfCFTA endorsement
The continental endorsement gathered momentum during the recent visit of the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Wamkele Mene, to the NCS Headquarters in Abuja, where he inspected the Customs Service’s modernisation platform.
Mene visited the headquarters alongside members of the Senate Committee on Customs led by Senator Jibrin Isah, following a two-day retreat on customs modernisation and reforms.
After witnessing the system in operation, the AfCFTA Secretary-General described B’Odogwu, Nigeria’s indigenous Unified Customs Management System, as a model with potential for wider adoption across Africa.
Mene disclosed that non-African companies had also offered similar solutions but said AfCFTA had opted for an African solution, underscoring the continent’s determination to develop its own expertise and infrastructure.
The endorsement effectively elevates B’Odogwu from a Nigerian Customs digitalisation initiative to a potential template for the continent’s evolving customs administration.
Senator Isah also expressed the Senate committee’s support for the modernisation programme after witnessing the technology in operation, saying members had become ambassadors of the initiative.
B’Odogwu at centre of transformation
First piloted in October 2024, B’Odogwu has become a major component of the NCS modernisation programme, supporting the digitalisation of customs processes and integrating critical functions including cargo tracking, data infrastructure, surveillance, risk management and non-intrusive inspection.
The system is also being integrated with the National Single Window, which was launched in March 2026 as a unified digital gateway for cross-border trade processes.
The integration is expected to improve the speed and transparency of cargo clearance while reducing inefficiencies and strengthening data exchange among agencies involved in international trade.
For Nigeria, the AfCFTA development goes beyond the commercial value of the continental project.
It represents a rare opportunity for the country to export technology, expertise and institutional know-how, rather than merely participate in Africa’s expanding trade market as a consumer.
The development also reinforces the argument that investment in indigenous technology and institutional reform can produce solutions with commercial value beyond Nigeria’s borders.
With AfCFTA seeking to dismantle barriers to intra-African trade, modern customs infrastructure will remain critical to achieving faster cargo clearance, improved revenue collection, effective border controls and seamless exchange of trade information.
The emergence of Nigerian-developed customs technology at the centre of that continental ambition could therefore mark a significant shift in Nigeria’s role in Africa—from being principally a market for imported technology to becoming a provider of strategic trade infrastructure for the continent.
Customs
Customs FOU ‘A’ crushes smuggling ring, seizes N3.24bn worth of contraband, recovers N729m revenue
–-intercepts cannabis, tramadol, rice, vehicles, elephant tusks, other prohibited goods
Funso Olojo, Editor
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ (FOU ‘A’), Ikeja-Lagos, has dealt a heavy blow to smuggling and revenue fraud, intercepting 220 consignments of prohibited and smuggled goods with a combined Duty Paid Value of N3.24 billion and recovering N728.98 million in lost revenue.
The seizures, recorded through a series of intelligence-driven operations, highlight the escalating battle by the Customs Service to shut down illicit trade routes, protect domestic production and plug revenue leakages arising from false declarations, under-valuation and other customs infractions.
Among the major seizures were 4,956 bags of foreign parboiled rice weighing 50kg each, equivalent to eight trailer loads; 12 foreign-used vehicles; 2,683 parcels of synthetic cannabis (Sativa) weighing 1,439.9kg; 49 parcels of Ghanaian Loud weighing 26.1kg; one parcel of crystal methamphetamine weighing 0.35kg and 13 parcels of granular cannabis weighing 1.35kg.
The Unit also intercepted 240,000 tablets of Tramadol, 12,000 tablets of Hypnox and 22 elephant tusks weighing 130.84kg, alongside 964 25-litre jerrycans of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), representing 24,100 litres.
Other items seized include 26 cartons of foreign vegetable oil, 686 cartons of foreign poultry products, 414 bales of used clothing and 2,947 pieces of used tyres, among other prohibited and smuggled goods.
The Comptroller of FOU ‘A’, Gambo Aliyu, said the N728.98 million revenue recovery represented an important component of the Unit’s enforcement mandate, particularly its efforts to recover government revenue lost through fraudulent trade declarations.
Aliyu warned importers, exporters and licensed customs agents against deliberate attempts to short-change the government, urging them to make accurate declarations and comply fully with applicable customs laws and regulations.
He said the Unit would continue to facilitate legitimate commerce but would show no mercy to operators involved in smuggling, revenue evasion and other forms of economic sabotage.
According to him, the latest seizures demonstrate the importance of intelligence gathering, risk profiling, inter-agency collaboration and intelligence fusion in dismantling sophisticated smuggling networks.
He attributed the Unit’s operational successes to improved intelligence capabilities and cooperation from sister agencies, stakeholders, border communities and members of the public.
Beyond the revenue implications, the seizures have significant economic and public-safety consequences.
The interception of foreign rice, poultry products, vegetable oil, used clothing, tyres and foreign-used vehicles is expected to provide additional protection for local manufacturers and producers already battling the effects of illicit imports.
Similarly, the seizure of large quantities of cannabis, tramadol, crystal methamphetamine and other controlled substances underscores the Customs Service’s growing role in preventing the movement of illicit drugs and potentially harmful pharmaceutical products through Nigeria’s trade corridors.
The recovery of the elephant tusks also reinforces the Service’s contribution to the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking and the protection of endangered species.
Aliyu, however, stressed that FOU ‘A’ was not at war with legitimate trade, insisting that its enforcement strategy was built around striking a balance between strong border control and trade facilitation.
He assured compliant traders that the Service remained committed to a fair, predictable and transparent trading environment, while warning that the Unit would sustain its zero-tolerance posture towards smuggling and revenue fraud.
The Customs boss called for stronger partnership with the business community and the general public, noting that sustained intelligence sharing and vigilance were critical to consolidating the gains recorded in revenue recovery, border security, public safety and economic protection.
He said the NCS, through FOU ‘A’, would continue to align its enforcement operations with the Federal Government’s broader economic agenda by protecting domestic production, promoting compliance, facilitating legitimate trade and blocking the circulation of prohibited and harmful goods.
Analyses
The National Single Window Illusion: Why phase two cannot succeed on paper
Monday Discourse with Nasiru Ibrahim
The official rollout of Phase One of the National Single Window (NSW) was heralded as a monumental leap toward a paperless, automated trade ecosystem.
On paper and within executive dashboards, the achievements are clear: the serialization of Licenses, Certificates, and Permits (LCPO), streamlined electronic manifest transmissions, and integrated risk management for primary regulators like SON and NAFDAC.
Yet, as the steering committee aggressively prepares for the imminent deployment of Phase Two, a severe operational reality check is required.
The claim that the Single Window has successfully “taken off” remains a purely administrative illusion when measured against the brutal, manual friction remaining at our terminal gates.
The core vulnerability of the current transition is the absolute failure to align digital front-end clearances with physical back-end enforcement.
Importers are successfully navigating the centralized National Single Window Portal, obtaining official electronic green lights, only to watch their consignments get trapped by manual human greed the moment the cargo hits the access roads.
Phase Two promises end-to-end electronic customs clearance, full payment digitization, and automated interoperability with the Nigeria Customs Service’s new B’Odogwu Unified Customs Management System.
However, if the federal administration continues to pour billions into software updates while leaving parallel manual check-points unpunished, Phase Two will simply become a highly expensive digital facade masking an archaic extortion regime.
True trade facilitation is not a technological achievement; it is a direct function of political will.
The integration of advanced platforms like B’Odogwu across major commands like Apapa and Tin Can proves that our regulatory arms possess the technical capability to automate. The problem is cultural and financial.
Entrenched administrative empires are deliberately preserving parallel manual structures because documentation loops, artificial delays, and manufactured compliance flags remain incredibly lucrative.
For the National Single Window to transition from a policy delusion into a genuine economic catalyst, the state must move past cosmetic celebrations.
The presidency must deploy the executive power required to completely outlaw physical interventions outside the approved digital framework and enforce severe punitive consequences for any agency chief who authorizes parallel verification processes.
Until the gate complies with the portal, the National Single Window project remains grounded.
Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja
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