By Our Correspondent
Lagos, April 7, ’26 (TNZ) Three Federal Government economic agencies, on Tuesday evaluated progress, identify challenges, and chart a path forward for the newly launched trade facilitation platform.
TheNewsZenith reports that the agencies are the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).
The evaluation took place during an assessment visit to the National Single Window (NSW) office on Tuesday in Apapa, Lagos.
NRS Chairman, Dr Zacch Adedeji, acknowledged President Bola Tinubu’s role in bringing the project to fruition after multiple failed attempts of the past.
Adedeji responded to stakeholders concerns about teething problems associated with the implementation.
He, however, assured that the government would cushion the financial impact on traders grappling with initial operational difficulties.
“This is a special period. We will engage terminal operators and relevant stakeholders to ensure that demurrage charges are waived on affected containers.
“Some of the delays attributable to the complexities of migrating data from the old system, noting that not all transactions had been affected.
“When you have people that have delay, it is a certain percentage of the overall, some are smooth. The reason for that is migration from the old system.
“Imagine when you have the master manifest, you have shipped one in the old system and the other one is here,” TheNewsZenith quotes Adedeji as saying.
He expressed appreciation for the broad acceptance the platform had received across the trade community.
“I thank Nigerians, because the success is just the adoption. We have not seen anyone say, no; this is not what we want to do, or this is what we want to do. So we thank Nigeria, we thank Mr President,” he said.
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On the teething challenges that had accompanied the rollout, NRS Chairman urged stakeholders not to lose heart.
“When you have a project of this magnitude, definitely you experience hitches. But if you look at where we are coming from, it cannot be demoralising.
Instead of submitting cargo documents in 10 to 15 places, he said, stakeholders are now submitting in one place.
And even if you have delay, it is far, far less than going to seven places”.
In his remarks, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi described the visit as a working review of the system’s performance since launch.
Adeniyi reaffirmed the service’s commitment to seeing it succeed.
“We are here to see the progress being recorded; what challenges associated with the platforms, and what we can do to address those challenges,” TheNewsZenith quotes the CGC as saying.
Adeniyi was unequivocal about the long-term significance of the platform, saying that “National Single Window is here to stay.
“The platform will revolutionise the trading environment for good.
“It will definitely deliver benefits to the Nigerian economy, to make our trade environment more competitive.
“It will equally increase trade facilitation and of course, impact our economy,” he added.
He acknowledged that glitches were to be expected with a deployment of such scale, adding that the team had been proactively addressing them.
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“We’ve been experiencing those glitches and working together as a team under the National Single Window to confront those challenges,” TheNewsZenith further quotes Adeniyi as saying.
Also speaking, Zahrah Mustapha Audu, Director General of PEBEC framed the NSW within the broader ease-of-doing-business agenda.
She described it as a welcome solution for businesses engaged in import and export trade.
Audu acknowledged that software-related teething problems were inevitable but argued that the direction of travel was clearly positive.
“Yes, we will have teething problems because it’s a software, but something that is noteworthy is the fact that technology is constantly evolving.
“It is good for us to get on board and to move with the trends. I see this as definitely progress for Nigeria,” Audu said.
She expressed optimism about the prospect of achieving the administration’s cargo dwell time target.
“We started 2026 with the vision of reducing cargo dwell time to less than seven days.
“At this point, I’m becoming very optimistic because we’re in April. The system has been deployed.
“So hopefully, we can reduce it to three to four days with the right political will, right determination, and cooperation from all the sister agencies who are involved in this process,” TheNewsZenith quotes her sayung.
She pledged PEBEC’s continued collaboration with businesses across all sectors to ensure that government policies deliver tangible results. (TNZ)
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