Prime Business Africa
The joint Stakeholders forum of the National Single Window project Secretariat and the Nigeria Customs Service have organized a sensitization programme for traders and other stakeholders within the jurisdiction of the Eastern Zone Command. The event took place at the Banquet Hall of the Hotel Presidential Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on Thursday.
It witnessed the gathering of critical stakeholders in the maritime trade value chain, especially from the Eastern Zone of the country.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe Single Window Project, according to the organizers, is a legacy programme of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubus’ quest for modalities necessary to be in place for Nigeria to attain a 1 trillion dollar economy by year 2030, in line with world economic growth projections for countries.
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It was also reported that Nigeria has been more poised to align with the global drive to facilitate cross-border trade. Hence, it was viewed that currently Nigeria’s import and Export procedures present major obstacles to trade, resulting in cumbersomeness, insufficiency and lack of transparency in trade processes leading to major revenue losses and low-ease of doing business.
Consequently, the Federal government of Nigeria launched the National Single window project on April 16, 2024. to improve trade facilitation, enhance federal government revenue and improve national security at the Nigerian borders.
The Term NSW simply referred to a platform that would harmonize and streamline trade processes and procedures into a one stop- shop platform housing all Government-related revenue collection agencies, importers and exporters as well as other regulatory agencies of government, granting them a single access for declarations.
The NSW was configured in a way to accommodate all critical stakeholders involved in the trade value chain to the extent of visibility and interoperability.
Organisers say, in this case no stakeholder would operate in silos or territorial and so it was envisaged that the platform would accelerate trade processes for more efficiency.
In his welcome address, the National Single window project team lead and Head of Secretariat Mr Tola Fakolade , applauded the efforts of the Nigeria customs service , the CBN and others for their pioneering roles in digitization of trade processes.
He emphasized that the National Single window project was intended to harmonize the digital operational competences of all MDA’s and consolidation of the same to enable ease of doing business in Nigeria.
He went further to posit that “everybody here is important in trade facilitation”
Noting that three categories of people were in attendance at the programme, those who have not heard about the single window, those who heard about it but did not understand what it was and those who knew about it and when it would be launched.
Fakolade, therefore assured the stakeholders of federal Government’s full commitment to deploying the NSW to enable Nigeria become a new business destination, even as he hoped that with the full implementation of National Single window, all bureaucratic bottlenecks hitherto hindering trade would be drastically reduced.
“It will ensure transparency in the system and enthrone predictability when transacting business”, he said, adding “eventually reducing cost of doing Business and person-to-person contacts in the trade ecosystem.”
In his opening remarks, Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, represented by the Zonal Coordinator, Customs Zone C, Headquarters Port Harcourt, Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Kamal Mohammed, welcomed the stakeholders to the event, explaining that the event was a defining moment for trade facilitation
The Customs boss called for collaboration of all stakeholders to make the project work, emphasizing that no single organization can achieve meaningful success in isolation but through collaboration.
He stated that, with National Single Window, clearance process and procedures as well as documentation would be easier and faster, thereby reducing cost of trade even as he said that collective purpose was the watchword.
On his part, the Registrar, Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Mr Kingsley Igwe, who was the keynote speaker, informed the stakeholders of the benefits of national Single Window and urged them to take advantage of it to leverage their businesses describing it as a one-stop shop.
There was an interactive section anchored by the National PRO, Nigeria Customs service ,AC Aliyu Maiwada, supported by the 21c and other CPRO’s in Zone C .
At the end of the event, stakeholders were unanimous in applauding the innovation and expressed their willingness and determination to key into it. The secretariat called for support for the project which would be launched in 2026, and urged all stakeholders to embrace it for their benefit in training and retraining of operators involved in the value chain. He noted that the implementation would be in four stages and each stage will have a Key Performance Index (KPI) for assessment.
Present at the event include Customs Area Comptrollers in Zone C. Others were Compt. Mukhtar Muazu, Comptroller, in the Tariff and Trade Department, Deputy Comptroller Aondona C, Fanyan, Head, B’ Odogwu implementation, ICT Modernization Dept all from Customs Headquarters Abuja. Nigeria Shippers Council, ANLCA, NAGAFF, Terminal Operators, Farmers, captains of Industries, APFFLON, AREFFN, Bonded Terminal Operators, among others
