Nigeria will host a major continental conference bringing together Customs chiefs, trade operators and global partners from November 17–19, 2025, Comptroller-General of Customs Adewale Adeniyi announced on Friday.
Speaking during the November edition of the meet-the-press briefing at the State House, Abuja, Adeniyi said at least 30 African Customs administrations have confirmed participation, with 22 sending their Comptroller-Generals or Directors-General. The Secretary-General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Ian Saunders, is expected to deliver the keynote address.
The conference — structured as a private-sector-driven forum — aims to strengthen Customs alignment under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and dismantle long-standing non-tariff barriers that continue to obstruct intra-African trade.
Adeniyi said delegations will cut across West, Central, East, Southern and North Africa. Although he did not list specific countries, he highlighted one of the challenges the forum seeks to address: goods granted AfCFTA preferences at the point of origin often lose those concessions upon arrival at destination ports.
“Most of the time, when these goods get to the destination country, they do not get the same concessions. And this has created a problem for us,” he said.
The Customs chief emphasised that the design of the forum is intentionally operator-led, noting that more private-sector players have registered than government representatives. Participants include stakeholders in shipping, aviation, ports, manufacturing, banking and logistics.
“Governments don’t trade, Customs don’t trade. It is the economic operators that trade, and we are happy they have embraced this initiative,” he said.
Day one of the conference will begin with a deep-dive session led by the private sector, where businesses will outline operational frustrations, especially issues relating to non-tariff barriers and cross-border logistics.
