The Nigeria Customs Service has concluded plans to adopt Pidgin English as the official language for the B’Odogwu, an indigenous Unified Customs Management System.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, announced this on Monday in Lagos during a town hall meeting with stakeholders on the B’Odogwu clearance platform, themed ‘Enhancing trade compliance and system optimisation through stakeholders’ engagement,’ organised by the NCS.

He emphasised the need to make the platform fully indigenous, including the use of language, adding that using Pidgin English for the platform would make it more receptive to stakeholders.

In October 2024, The PUNCH reported that the Service, in collaboration with the Trade Modernisation Project, developed the B’Odogwu platform, an indigenous Information and Communication Technology system aimed at improving customs operations.

Speaking at the event, Adeniyi reiterated the need to make B’Odogwu fully indigenous.

“I sat down there, and I listened to the second video, putting us through what we had to do when we went to log in. And I was hearing some nice, high-sounding points in English. I think the narration came through, and I was like, Oh, that’s very nice. I am very sure some people will enjoy it. But can we take this as a step forward? If B’Odogwu is indigenous, why don’t we also do this in Pidgin English? I don’t know if any of you have seen the football match being transmitted on Supersports, owned by the South African platform.

If the match is being played, and then the commentary is being run in Pidgin English, it is sweet, right? People will enjoy the commentary more than the football match itself,” Adeniyi said.

He stressed the need for a deliberate strategy by the Service to ensure that all the information about the platform is brought to the stakeholders, “so that the more people that understand it from the grassroots, from the very bottom, the better for us.”

Speaking on his recent role as the Chairperson of the World Customs Organisation, Adeniyi highlighted that the election recognised the fact that since Nigeria has been elevated to this position, “We are going to be more visible in the job opportunities there. But the second one is more important. And that is the obligation that it imposes on Nigeria to lead from the front and run a service that is in tandem with international best practices.”

According to Adeniyi, at this stage at WCO, “one of the things that we do at that stage is to give our stakeholders opportunities to provide feedback on what we do, to ensure that we foster partnership, partnership that works, and that provides results that are very beneficial to all of us, to everybody. The WCO is a monitoring and evaluation programme for every participant and activity, for us to be able to assess the past success so that we can strengthen the areas where things are working well and address areas where we need to make adjustments.”