Suara Sherif
The Federal Government has given ministries, departments and agencies until the end of November 2026 to complete reforms aimed at removing bottlenecks that continue to slow Nigeria’s export trade.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, announced the deadline on Wednesday in Abuja during a stakeholder engagement on Phase 2 of the National Single Window and the Export Tracker.
The next phase of the reform will focus on reducing fragmentation, duplication and weak coordination among government agencies, problems that have increased costs and created delays for exporters.
Since its launch on March 27, the National Single Window platform has processed more than 124,614 licences and permits, registered 11,096 importers and agents, and trained over 8,000 users.
The platform has also facilitated approximately N12.59 billion in regulatory payments.
Oduwole said the initiative forms part of President Bola Tinubu’s broader economic agenda to diversify the economy, expand non-oil exports, create jobs and support the government’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
Under Phase 2, export permits, certificates, licences, inspections, payments and other regulatory processes will be integrated into a single system based on a “one portal, one submission, one coordinated process” model.
The minister said government agencies should stop repeatedly requesting information that is already available within the public system, while retaining their respective statutory responsibilities.
Figures presented at the meeting showed that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria processed more than 85,000 documents through the platform, generating N9.95 billion in payments. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control processed 38,985 documents and recorded N2.59 billion.
Director of the National Single Window Secretariat, Tola Fakolade, said five agencies have so far been fully onboarded onto the platform: SON, NAFDAC, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Quarantine Service and NESREA.
He added that 25 of 27 cargo airlines had joined the platform, representing about 93 per cent participation, with more than 2,523 air cargo manifests submitted. On the maritime side, 48 of 88 shipping lines have been connected.
Fakolade acknowledged that the platform experienced technical challenges during its early stages but said those issues had been resolved, with adoption continuing to grow.
With the November deadline now set, the government’s next challenge will be ensuring that agencies move from participation to full integration, reducing the delays and administrative hurdles that exporters have long faced.
