The Sea Empowerment and Research Center (SEREC) writes the Presidency, identifying possible challenges that can hinder the workability of the recently implemented National Single Window (NSW) policy
By Patrick Ogboru
The Sea Empowerment and Research Center (SEREC) has written to the Presidency, drawing its attention to challenges that will be faced by the National Single Window (NSW) policy due to its shoddy implementation.
In the letter addressed to the Presidency and copied the Federal Ministry of Marine & Blue Economy on Tuesday April 14, Eugene Nweke, Head of Research at SEREC said though the policy was well intended, its implementation has resulted in operational disruptions.
The letter read, “The recent rollout of the National Single Window (NSW) platform across Nigeria’s ports, though well-intentioned and strategically aligned with global trade facilitation standards, has resulted in severe operational disruptions. These include the inability to process cargo declarations, escalating port congestion, and rising demurrage and storage costs.
“This development is not a failure of reform policy but a consequence of premature, non-phased implementation lacking adequate stakeholder integration and system readiness validation.
“This memo recommends an urgent shift from a full-scale deployment approach to a controlled, phased stabilisation and rollout strategy, ensuring continuity of trade while restoring system integrity and stakeholder confidence.
“The National Single Window initiative is designed to streamline trade documentation processes, improve transparency and efficiency and reduce cargo dwell time and logistics costs.
“However, the current implementation model—executed simultaneously across major and minor ports—has resulted in, system-wide transactional paralysis, accumulation of cargo at terminals, increased cost burdens on importers and exporters and erosion of stakeholder confidence.”
Nweke observed that the absence of phased implementation of the NSW is a big challenge. According to him, the system was deployed nationwide without pilot testing at low-traffic ports, incremental validation of operational modules as well as controlled migration strategy.
Consequently, there are the challenged of inability to process cargo declarations, disruption of clearance procedures and delays cascading across the logistics value chain. Nweke further observed that there was weak stakeholder integration of critical actors in the system, including shipping companies, terminal operators and licensed customs agents. These critical stakeholders were not fully integrated into the system prior to the rollout.
The SEREC boss identified regulatory and legal gaps which have resulted in lack of enforceable compliance framework, limited authority of regulatory bodies over international operators and absence of binding operational protocols.
“Nigeria’s pursuit of the National Single Window is necessary and overdue, but its current challenges underscore a critical lesson: Digital reform without structured implementation sequencing will disrupt, rather than enhance, trade efficiency. The focus must therefore shift from continuation versus suspension to stabilisation and structured deployment.”
SEREC also recommended way forward which Nweke said include crisis containment, adoption of a hybrid operational model, temporarily allowing parallel use of legacy systems for cargo declarations, maintenance of NSW in controlled testing mode, granting of temporary cost relief measures among others.
On his part, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Widescope Group, Dr. Segun Musa said the calls for the review of the NSW implementation have vindicated his earlier position on the preparedness of the country to institute the NSW Project.
Musa said, “They have not rolled out the National Single Window when I started complaining about it almost 15 years ago because I knew that is where we are going to be heading. Some people just wanted to take credit that they started it because of the amount allocated to it in the budget.
“Why the rush for the National Single Window? Somebody should just come out and tell me why we needed the Single Window when we are still battling with individual agencies that are not effective. Why the rush into Single Window? Why do you want to put all your eggs in one basket? It’s suicidal for the economy.
“We are not ripe for the National Single Window. We have deficiency in infrastructure, we are yet to work on ethical conduct that is supposed to be uniform. Single Window, ordinarily is not supposed to know whether Segun Musa is the owner of this consignment, you are not supposed to see Segun Musa on the license, the only thing that will be visible will be a code which one cannot even decode. You don’t need to know the owner so that the issue of let me treat my friend’s job faster than the others does not even apply.
“The way it works is, you must have a working system individually and collectively between the operators, the freight forwarders, the shipping companies, the terminal operators, the airlines, they must be efficient in their own data collection and inputting. And it must be uniform.
“Now, go to the state actors – the customs, NAFDAC, SON, Plant Quarantine, all of them, they must also be uniform in efficiency and you must test the input of both individuals and agencies alike, how effective their inputs are. You now look at bringing them together, how will it impact trade facilitation.
“If you now notice that individual contributions to trade facilitation is smooth, you will now begin to think about automating the system. Once you automate the system, at the point of automating the system, you are introducing trade facilitation.”
