Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed disclosed this at the end of the FEC virtual meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to her, the total cost of the project is in the sum of $3.1 billion with a concessionary period of 20 years and the funding solely from investors with the revenue expected from this automation pegged at $176bn.

“The main objective of this project is to completely automate every aspect of the Customs business and to institutionalise the use of smart and emerging technologies that will enhance the statutory functions of the Nigeria Customs Service in the areas of revenue generation as well as trade facilitation and enhancement of security.

The Finance Minister gave a breakdown of the project funding, and stated that the investors will be paid overtime according to a schedule that will be negotiated with the Federal Government.

“This investment of $3.1 billion is broken down into capital investment of $1.2 million that will be done in three phases over 36 months by these investors and $1.8 million is our projection of the operational cost over the 20-year period of the implementation of this project.

“This project has the potential to yield up to $176 billion of revenue from the project and the consortium that are providing these investments are going to be paid overtime according to the schedule that will be negotiated for their investments including their profits and cost of funds,” she added.