The second phase of the National Single Window (NSW), designed to digitise manual trade procedures for international traders, will go live with its second phase on December 14, the secretariat has said.
It is designed for processing registrations, licences, permits, certificates, inspections and approvals for exports and will be rolled out in batches according to Tola Fakolade, director of the National Single Window Secretariat.
“We’ve broken the implementation into two batches. In batch one, you can focus on a lot of current line service,” Fakolade told stakeholders Tuesday at a NSW export sensitization in Lagos.
Agencies integrated into the first batch include the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) which issues an Export Conformity Assessment Programme (SONEXCAP), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerlan Assoclation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), FMITI – Federal Produce Inspection Service (FPIS) and Registered Exporter System (REX).
“These are the agencies that are going to go in December. They will go first and then we’ll have the batch two,” he said.
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Exporters who already possess valid licences from some agencies will be able to access them on the platform by entering their existing certificate or licence numbers, while those requiring new approvals will submit applications through the system for processing by the relevant agencies.
For products without existing licences, the applications would be submitted through the platform, transmitted to the agency, like NAFDAC and processed there before approvals were issued.
The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said its product certification procedures, including inspection, sampling and testing, would be integrated into the platform.
The agency identified two certification routes. Route A for products without prior national certification and Route B for products already certified under its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme.
“The application is expected on the Single Window. The in-process, of course, you will be contacted on the Single Window on the stages of your application. And then you will receive the feedback of the success, which is your certificate, also on the Single Window,” said a representative.
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Harmonisation of regulatory requirements attached to different Harmonised System (HS) codes, is also a priority for stakeholders. Customs said it was working to publish a list identifying the regulatory agencies responsible for individual product categories on its website and the NSW platform.
This is intended to help importers and exporters establish which agencies regulate their goods before applying for permits, reducing unnecessary approvals and duplication.
Aondona Fanyam, comptroller ICT and modernization at Customs said the regulatory HS code list would be published by December 1, 2026, at the latest, while full enforcement would commence on January 1, 2027.
The system would eventually prevent transactions from proceeding without the required regulatory permits.
Discussions between the NSW secretariat and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on integrating commercial banks and pre-shipment inspection agents are still ongoing.
Fakolade said that it had held a two-week workshop with the CBN to determine how the institutions would interact with the platform, with discussions reportedly about 80 percent complete.
The NSW management confirmed that the existing Trade Monitoring System (TRMS) would be integrated with the platform and that the NXP export documentation process would be initiated through the NSW.
“One thing I can assure you is that TRMS is integrating with the National Single Window. And the NXP process will be initiated from the National Single Window,” Fakolade said.
Further engagements with commercial banks and pre-shipment inspection agents are expected before their integration in the second batch, scheduled for the first quarter of 2027. The secretariat also disclosed plans to engage the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development to bring mining-related export approvals onto the platform, following complaints from exporters about lengthy certificate processing times and permits expiring before shipments reach the ports.
The second batch of the second phase launch will onboard the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Federal Ministry of Livestock Development (FMLD), Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy (FMMBE), Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMoF).
It is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
For agencies yet to be onboarded including the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the secretariat attributed the delay partly to changes in their payment infrastructure.
“One of the main reasons is that they are changing their payment process. They are moving the payment platform from one platform to the other, which is a separate project also. So it did have an impact on the overall project time,” he said.
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Bethel Olujobi is the Trade Correspondent at BusinessDay. He brings scarce insight into Nigeria’s maritime policies and the changing currents of global commerce defining the country’s position in international trade. Before this, he reported on foreign relations, migration and sports for BusinessDay. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication, and is an alumni of the CNN Academy and the Financial Times News School. He is certified by Reuters and Google. He is based in Lagos, Nigeria. For pitches, email: [email protected]
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