Nigeria Pressed to Lead ECOWAS Transit Guarantee Scheme to Boost Regional Trade Efficiency
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Afreximbank has urged Nigeria to spearhead the implementation of a regional transit guarantee scheme within ECOWAS to reduce cross-border trade bottlenecks, cut logistics costs, and enhance the movement of goods across West Africa. The proposal targets long-standing inefficiencies in customs transit procedures that rely on physical escorts, raising expenses and delaying shipments.
Speaking at the inaugural Customs Partnership for African Cooperation in Trade (Customs PACT) in Abuja, Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development, stressed the absence of a unified ECOWAS-wide transit guarantee system. Afreximbank is collaborating with Nigeria, ECOWAS institutions, and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development to introduce a regional mechanism that complements national insurers and chambers of commerce.
Central to this effort is Afreximbank’s $1 billion African Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme, designed to address customs concerns over revenue leakage and unauthorized market entry. The scheme provides a single transit bond covering duties across multiple borders, eliminating the need for country-by-country guarantees and substantially lowering compliance costs. A similar $300 million pilot with ZEP-RE in COMESA and the East African Community has demonstrated potential annual savings of at least $300 million once scaled continent wide.
Beyond guarantees, Afreximbank highlighted the importance of modernizing border infrastructure. The Beitbridge upgrade between South Africa and Zimbabwe reduced clearance times from several days to just a few hours, illustrating how harmonized processes and interoperable systems can remove soft barriers that account for roughly 75 percent of trade delays in Africa.
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu endorsed the Customs PACT initiative, aligning it with national and regional objectives to accelerate integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). A functional transit guarantee system would reduce operational costs, strengthen supply chain reliability, and expand market access across West Africa.
