B’Odogwu: ECOWAS Trade Committee Commends Adeniyi for Innovation, Revenue

The Regional Trade Facilitation Committee (RTFC) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has commended the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, for his innovation, the Unified Customs Management System. ECOWAS Director of Trade, Kolawole Sofola, gave the commendation when the RTFC visited the PTML Command, which was the pilot area for the implementation of the platform, also known as B’Odogwu. He commended Adeniyi and the PTML Command for the great achievements in trade facilitation and revenue collection recorded within the period it commenced implementing the project. According to Sofola, who led the team to learn about the activities of the command and get deeper insight into recent NCS activities, Nigeria is making gains with the deployment of modern innovations He added that the NCS was doing a great job in enabling economic growth through trade facilitation and suppression of smuggling, while also commending the Controller of PTML Command, Compt. Tenny Daniyan, for deploying the technology to achieve greater productivity, including increased revenue. Speaking on behalf of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, as well as the Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, he congratulated Compt. Daniyan and his management team for not only generating revenue but also stopping smuggling activities and promoting trade facilitation. “We came here to learn as a regional trade facilitation committee, consisting of all ECOWAS member-states, and are very glad to have noted a very good practice in Nigeria,” the Command Public Relations Officer, AT Abubakar, cited Sofola to say. According to him, “what Nigeria has been doing is evolving with the times. They have improved from one system to another, to finally move to this current system which is homegrown. This command and, in general the Nigerian customs service, is doing well in promoting economic growth. On his part, Compt. Daniyan told the committee that since the inception of the B’Odogwu system in November 2025, the command has collected over N230 billion as at May 22, 2025. He revealed that the B’Odogwu project was initially launched in a pilot phase at PTML Command and, because of its success story, the customs management has rolled it out in 34 commands across the country. Daniya explained that the B’Odogwu platform is unique in the sense that it is a home-grown application developed by the NCS officers in conjunction with the Trade Modernisation Project. He further disclosed that the command now operates a two-hour cargo clearance, adding that this could only be possible with compliant traders at the RoRo terminal, and that the clearance time would still reduce as the command improves on its operations. The area controller further stated that under the guidance and encouragement of the CGC, there has always been constant sensitisation, training and capacity building for officers and all stakeholders, including bankers, terminal operators and others involved in using the project. Daniyan further explained that B’Odogwu replaced the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS II), adding that being new, glitches and issues are expected, but that its uniqueness is in being a home-grown application. “We give kudos to our CGC because the spirit and the vision in him is what he has given to us by drinking of that fountain of innovation. He is a great innovator and a visionary for these very projects,” he added. Meanwhile, giving the history of the platform in his presentation on the application, the B’Odogwu Project Manager, Assistant Comptroller Oyindamola Oladepo, disclosed that N5.6 billion was realised from the platform in a day.

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Tony Nwachukwu

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