Efforts to deliver a seamless National Single Window (NSW) at Nigeria’s ports before the end of the first quarter of 2026, as directed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, risk derailment, due to persistent overlapping mandates among key regulatory agencies.
Industry stakeholders say the presence of multiple agencies with similar responsibilities remains the most formidable obstacle to the Federal Government’s plan to consolidate trade processes onto a single digital platform.
Despite previous reforms intended to restrict port operations to core agencies, checks by Shipping Position Daily revealed that regulatory bodies such as the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) have resumed full operations at the ports. Stakeholders describe this as a worsening trend of multiple agencies interfering with cargo clearance — fuelling delays, extortion, and trade disruptions.
Speaking with our correspondent, recently, Sir John Oforbike, former Western Zone Coordinator of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), cited his personal experience when his consignment of imported palm oil was delayed for days after NAFDAC had cleared it, only for Quarantine and other agencies to issue fresh alerts and make additional demands.
“Palm oil is food, used in cooking, soap, and animal feed. It already has a certificate of inspection from the country of origin. Yet, after NAFDAC clears it, Quarantine officials still place alerts and demand ‘settlement’. One Quarantine official even argued that milk, being from a cow, requires their inspection. This is ridiculous. The level of corruption is alarming,” he said.
Oforbike described the system as lacking oversight and accountability, warning that, “If we don’t fix this, the maritime sector will continue to suffer.” He called for urgent digital reform where a central portal clearly defines each agency’s responsibilities, eliminating grounds for overlap and corruption.
Backing this view, a member of the National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents; Mr Davis Abraham said: “There appears to be a consensus that limited coordination among agencies, terminal operators, and other stakeholders is the greatest obstacle. Importers, clearing agents, and other port users face stringent, overlapping, and onerous requirements that make the adoption of a Single Window imperative to boost efficiency and reduce corruption.”
Abraham added that, achieving the intended 48-hour cargo clearance at Nigeria’s ports will remain a mirage as long as agencies fail to harmonize their operations.
Former Acting President of ANLCA, Kayode Farinto, also weighed in, noting that bureaucratic rivalry, inadequate stakeholder engagement, and entrenched protectionist tendencies have combined to slow the pace of implementation. He faulted the exclusion of freight forwarders from the National Single Window Committee, saying it was “a major flaw” given that they interact daily with the port clearance system.
“My take is that, it’s a lofty idea, but implementation has been poor because we have not dotted our ‘I’s and crossed our ‘T’s. Agencies such as SON, NAFDAC, and others are reluctant to fully submit to a unified operating procedure for fear of losing control over their individual mandates,” Farinto said.
He proposed a harmonised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) vetted by a technical committee of industry experts, with a legal framework to sanction any agency found culpable of causing unnecessary delays. “Until these are addressed, the National Single Window will remain nothing but another talk shop,” he warned.
A maritime analyst, Pius Ebojie, shared the same sentiment, saying: “There is no point sugar-coating it. We are years behind schedule. Countries like Ghana and Kenya are already miles ahead with Single Window systems. For Nigeria, every day lost is another self-inflicted wound on our economy.”
The NSW initiative, launched by President Tinubu in April 2024, is designed to centralize all trade-related processes, reduce cargo clearance times, and minimize operational costs and procedural delays. Government officials say integration of revenue collection and digital documentation between the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is already underway and is critical to meeting the presidential deadline.
“The integration of revenue-collection systems between the FIRS and Customs is expected to improve efficiency and expand the country’s non-oil revenue base,” said FIRS Executive Chairman, Zacch Adedeji.
However, stakeholders warn that these gains may be lost if agencies continue to operate in silos. Oforbike stressed:
“With a proper Single Window, when you want to import something, you know which agency to deal with, get the right permit, and you’re done. But even after doing all that, another agency still interferes. There’s no coordination, no oversight. The entire port system is weak because of corruption and lack of control. We need someone to oversee these agencies and enforce their limits.”
NCS Comptroller-General Adewale Adeniyi also emphasized the urgency, stating that the NSW platform is a priority project designed to modernize Nigeria’s trade environment through advanced technology and inter-agency cooperation. NSW Director Tola Fakolade maintained that the project is on track, but acknowledged that “effective integration at this stage is critical to meeting the operational timeline.”
