A maritime expert, Dr Oluwasegun Musa, has commended President Bola Tinubu for the bold step to inaugurate the National Single Window Steering Committee.
Musa gave the commendation at the sideline of a media conference on Thursday in Lagos.
Tinubu, on Tuesday in Abuja, inaugurated the National Single Window Steering Committee to enhance trade facilitation and efficiency within the nation’s import and export value chain.
The Committee is composed of representatives from key federal ministries and agencies, including the Ministry of Finance, the Marine and Blue Economy, Transportation, Trade and Investment, as well as the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Other agencies involved are the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
Musa, also the Chairman/Chief Consultant, Global Transport Policy, said that the single window was not just a platform for trade liberation, but also for safety and security.
According to him, the Nigeria Customs Service is the organisation handling the single window.
“That should not be so; there are other actors in the field that should participate.
“It is commendable for the president to have taken this bold step. In life, what distinguishes one from others is the bold step taken and Mr president has taken done that.
“This will merge the security, safety and others to come under one body for easy conversation. It will not be a case of this ministry did not do its job. Everybody will do his or her job and it will be supervised.
“Single window is one stop shop that will take care of so many things. When you talk about security, safety, it is what is used all over the world,” he said.
Musa noted that aside that, stakeholders were also clamouring for government to automate the port, adding that he was optimistic that government would take care of the issue.
“It is not automation of customs but of the port. Every actor in the port must be automated; we must digitalise our port if we want it to be effective.
“Even people clearing cargo must also be automated. For us to manage illegalities in the port, there must not be interface. We must minimise interface, it is only when you see me that you want to negotiate.
“Every time we travel outside the country, these are things we are asked about in international forums. Must we pass through all these before we clear our cargoes?” he asked.
He said that ordinarily, the country must project the cost it would take to clear a cargo, noting that it was only in Nigeria that one could not even calculate what it takes to clear cargo out of the port.
“And that is why there is always conflict between the principal and the agent.
“When we automate the system, within your comfort zone, you are imputing your cargo into the customs platform and other platforms; they don’t see you and you don’t see them.
“Once things are automated, the turnaround time will reduce; the more we delay vessels, the more freight charges we pay,” he said.
