Lack of Political Will Hampers Single Window Implementation In Nigeria

Three years after it was launched in Nigeria, fresh indications have emerged that the lack of political will from the Federal Government has delayed the effective implementation of the National Single Window for trade facilitation at the ports.
This is even as the World Bank in its 2016 statistics on trade facilitation has indicated that Nigeria’s compliance to provisions of the World Trade Organizations (WTO) is very low compared to neighbouring countries like Ghana, Senegal, and Swaziland among others.
‎In the statistics which was obtained by Shipping Position Daily, out of 189 world countries that subscribed to the WTO provisions, Nigeria ranked 182nd next to Eritrea which ranked 189th; lowest on the table. Swaziland blazed the trail by coming 30th in the world, Mauritius 66th, Senegal 113th, while Ghana ranked 171.
While speaking at the‎ Ghana National Window Media Trade Facilitation Workshop which held in Ghana last weekend, Chief Executive Officer of West Blue Consulting; Valentino Mintah, identified excessive bureaucracy‎ as the most severe constraint to trade processing in Africa.
She noted that reasons the National Single Window in Nigeria has not taken-off fully was because it was yet to gain Federal Government’s political will‎,which will compel all regulatory agencies in import and export business to key into the Single Window Platform.
‎In the face of dwindling revenue from crude oil, Mintah urged the Federal Government to make Single Window a National agenda, stressing that much revenues will be conserved if all agencies at the port collaborate under the single window platform.
West Blue Consulting is IT partner of the Nigeria Customs Service which developed the Single Window Platform, The Nigeria Trade Hub and Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) and in less than two years. Ghana also copied the scheme in September 2015 so as to know how Nigeria Customs Service modernized its operations.
Mintah said that already USD200million‎ has been conserved for Ghana Port Authority, largely due to the political will and acceptance by the government.
‎She said, “In Nigeria, what we did was the feasibility study and the business process and the trade portal. We also worked with Customs to implement the PAAR; these are only some of the ingredients needed for the full meal to be cooked”.
Stating some of the benefits of single window, she said, ‎”It reduces corruption and bureaucratic processes, it improves traders compliance. It helps integrated inspection, if information is shared amongst all stakeholders, then you won’t have agencies coming to the port trying to break the seal or trying to open containers at different times
According to her, African importers and exporters remain uncompetitive in the global business arena because of the number of days it takes to complete import and export processing and their attendant costs
“When we join forces and pursue the goals of the National Single Window concept, it would be relatively easy to create a solid foundation which will enable us achieve the 50% better, faster and cheaper trade across borders” she said
Also speaking at the workshop, a Single Window expert, Mr. Tom Butterly noted that Single Window concept has been around for 13 years and it is being operated by 70 countries worldwide. He said in every country where it is being implemented, it has helped in reducing time, cost and promotes efficiency in trade, this unburden the exporters and enhance revenue of government.
“Instead of all the agencies of government working on their own, it helps them work together efficiently, provided they work together as a community. Humans resist change, so also will the government agencies, so government’s Political Will is required”
“Political will is the key factor, in many countries, it requires the President or the Prime Minister to give a directive to all the agencies to deliver using the single window, once this is done it changes the whole approach” he said