Joyce Mmereole Okoli
The Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) on Tuesday paid a joint assessment visit to the National Single Window (NSW) operational hub in Apapa, Lagos, pledging swift interventions to ease initial disruptions experienced since the platform went live.
The visit came less than a week after the Federal Government launched the NSW. Nigeria’s first unified digital trade portal designed to streamline import and export processes, cut delays, and lower the cost of doing business at the ports.
Speaking during the inspection, NRS Chairman Dr. Zacch Adedeji commended President Bola Tinubu for breaking the long-standing jinx that had stalled the project for years. He also moved to reassure traders facing delays due to system migration challenges.
“These are teething issues, and this is a special period. We will engage terminal operators and relevant stakeholders to ensure that demurrage charges are waived on affected containers,” Adedeji said.
He explained that the delays were largely caused by complexities in migrating data from legacy systems to the new platform. “Some transactions have been smooth, others delayed. When you migrate from an old system with different manifest structures, there will naturally be a learning curve,” he noted.
Despite the transitional challenges, Adedeji praised the high rate of user adoption across the port community, calling it a major indicator of the platform’s long-term success.
“Nobody is saying they don’t want the system. Nigerians have embraced it, and that acceptance is a win for the economy,” he said.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, described the visit as a “working review” aimed at assessing performance since deployment and addressing emerging operational gaps.
“National Single Window is here to stay,” Adeniyi declared. “It will revolutionise Nigeria’s trading environment, enhance our competitiveness, and deliver measurable economic benefits.”
Adeniyi acknowledged the technical glitches that have surfaced but emphasized that the NSW implementation team had been working collectively to resolve them.
“We had initial issues with uploading manifests from DHL, resolved. We had challenges with shipping companies, also resolved. Training is ongoing, and stakeholder buy-in has been overwhelming,” he said.
Drawing parallels with the rollout of the Customs B’Odogwu automation platform, he expressed confidence that the NSW team would stabilize operations even faster. “We faced similar complaints during the B’Odogwu launch, but today those concerns no longer exist,” he said.
Director-General of PEBEC, Zahrah Mustapha Audu, positioned the NSW as a central pillar in the administration’s long-term ease-of-doing-business reforms.
“Yes, there will be teething problems, it’s software,” she said. “But technology is constantly evolving. What matters is that we have taken the right step forward. This is progress for Nigeria.”
Audu said she remained optimistic about achieving the government’s target of reducing cargo dwell time to under seven days in 2026.
“With deployment now underway in April, and with strong political will and agency cooperation, we may even reduce dwell time to three or four days,” she said.
She reaffirmed PEBEC’s commitment to sustained collaboration with private-sector players to ensure that reforms translate into real gains for businesses.
All three agencies urged port users to remain patient as the NSW stabilizes, stressing that the long-term benefits, including centralized documentation, reduced human interface, faster clearance, and lower costs, far outweigh the temporary inconveniences.
The team also commended the NSW management and technical partners for progress recorded so far, even as further engagements with terminal operators and shipping lines are expected in the coming days.