AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative Expands Across Gulf of Guinea Maritime Gateways with Single Electronic Sea Waybill

ACCRA, GHANA — Maritime freight operators and port authorities along the Bight of Benin and the Gulf of Guinea have officially implemented the AfCFTA Single Electronic Sea Waybill (e-SWB), ending decades of duplicative paper documentation that clogged regional shipping lanes.

Under the pilot program overseen by the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra, vessels calling at the Port of Tema (Ghana), Lekki Deep Sea Port (Nigeria), and the Autonomous Port of Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) can now lodge cargo manifests through a centralized digital customs window 48 hours prior to vessel arrival.

Customs clearance times for processed consumer packaged goods, textiles, and domestic pharmaceuticals have dropped from an average of nine days to less than six hours, providing massive demurrage savings for indigenous shipping lines and freight forwarders.

AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene emphasized that seamless coastal cabotage is the cornerstone of African industrial independence: 'By dismantling artificial bureaucratic chokepoints along our maritime corridors, we ensure that West African manufacturers can supply regional markets faster and cheaper than overseas conglomerates.'