National Single Window: Project Secretariat, Customs Sensitize Eastern Zone Stakeholders

The joint Stakeholders forum of the National Single window project Secretariat and the Nigeria Customs Service have organized a sensitization programme for Stakeholders in the Eastern Zone.

The event which took place at the Banquet hall of Hotel presidential Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital Thursday, witnessed the gathering of critical stakeholders in the maritime trade value chain especially from the Eastern Zone of the country.

The 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.

It was also reported that Nigeria has been more poised to align with the global drive to facilitate cross- order Trade.

Hence it was viewed that currently Nigeria's import and Export procedures present major obstacles to trade, resulting in cumbansomness, insufficiency and lack of transparency in trade processes leading to major revenue losses and low-ease of doing business and affecting all trade stakeholders.

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 Governments full commitment towards 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.

Saying "It will ensure transparency in the system and enthrone predictability when transacting business", adding "eventually reducing cost of doing Business and person to person contacts in the trade Ecosystem."

In his opening remarks, the 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 has welcomed the stakeholders to the event insisting 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 has informed the stakeholders of all the benefits of national Single Window  urging them to take advantage of it to leverage in 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 next year 2026, and urged all stakeholders to embrace it for their benefit informing them of training and retraining of operators in the system involved in the value chain noting that the implementation would be in four stages and each stage will have a 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.

By: Bon Peters

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