Webb Customs — Benin's Nationwide AI-Branded Customs Risk System Reaches 44 Offices

Benin's Direction Générale des Douanes et Droits Indirects (customs authority) partnered with Webb Fontaine, a Dubai-based vendor specialising in customs digitalisation across Africa, to deploy Webb Customs — a system the government and vendor describe as using AI-driven, dynamic risk analysis. It went live nationwide on 21 May 2025 across 44 of Benin's 49 customs offices, replacing the older ASYCUDA/SYDONIA World system.

Within its first months of operation the new system processed 59,000 customs declarations, issued 48,000 laissez-passer documents and generated more than 100,000 receipts across 700-plus individual and 90 company user accounts, collecting over 30 billion FCFA, according to figures reported by Beninese authorities and independent African technology press. Benin's overall customs revenue rose from 355 billion FCFA in 2020 to 722 billion FCFA in 2024, a trend the government cites as validating its digitalisation programme, and the 2026 supplementary budget anticipates a further 65 billion FCFA increase partly attributed to this effort.

However, the 2020–2024 revenue growth spans several years that predate the May 2025 nationwide rollout of Webb Customs and reflects a broader, multi-year customs and tax-administration reform programme, so it cannot be attributed to this specific system. No independent technical documentation of the system's risk-scoring methodology, accuracy or error rates was found beyond vendor and government marketing material, and no independent audit or evaluation of the tool has yet been published.

Read the full analysis: https://www.lanation.bj/economie/projet-customs-webb-un-nouveau-systeme-deploye-dans-44-bureaux-de-douane