Nigeria, Cameroon Begin Joint Assessment Of Mfum-Ekok Border Post

Nigeria and Cameroon have started a joint assessment of the Ekok-Mfum One-Stop Border Post, as the two countries work to cut trade delays along one of West and Central Africa’s busiest crossing points.

The exercise was announced by the Nigeria Customs Service and carried out with the Cameroon Customs administration. It brought together customs officials, security agencies, development partners and community leaders under the theme, “Leveraging NCS Trade Modernisation to Advance Seamless Cross-Border Trade.”

Comptroller-General of Customs Bashir Adeniyi said movement of people and goods between the two countries remained slow and costly despite their proximity. He said the initiative builds on existing cooperation, noting that it is about taking something that already works and asking whether it can serve the wider region and continent.

The joint assessment also marked the launch of the Mfum-Ekok Border Modernisation Initiative, which is expected to digitise border processes, upgrade infrastructure and align operations with the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Adeniyi said the exercise received support from the African Development Bank, the Economic Community of West African States, Afreximbank, the AfCFTA secretariat and the Economic Community of Central African States, among others.

As part of the preparations, Nigerian and Cameroonian delegations recently visited the Beitbridge Border Post between South Africa and Zimbabwe to study joint operations and technology-driven border management. Technical teams from both countries are also finalising a joint operational agreement, expected to be signed at the forthcoming C-PACT conference, to provide a framework for procedures, data exchange and coordinated controls at the Mfum-Ekok border.

The Director-General of Cameroon Customs, Fongod Nuvaga, described the assessment as the first step towards unified border operations. He called for real-time data sharing and joint risk management to remove unnecessary duplication of cargo checks, so that goods and travellers are not subjected to repetitive screening on both sides of the border.

Officials said the success of the initiative would be measured by faster cargo clearance, lower trade costs, increased trade volumes and improved border security. They added that the project could position the Mfum-Ekok corridor, which links Cross River State to Cameroon’s South-West Region, as a model for AfCFTA implementation. No implementation timetable or baseline figures have been provided yet, so the immediate story is a documented reform under preparation rather than a completed reduction in clearance times.

Sources: Peoples Gazette, Nairametrics