The first phase of the long-awaited National Single Window, a digital system to integrate and simplify international trade procedures will go live in Nigeria on March 27, officials at the NSW Secretariat confirmed to BusinessDay.
The project, contracted to CrimsonLogic, a Singaporean global technology company, is designed to model successes in Benin, Djibouti and Kenya where it helped reduce business costs, smoothen Customs processes and improve cargo turnaround times.
It is especially crucial for Nigeria where the cost of doing business at its ports is 40 percent higher than in neighbouring West African countries according to the World Bank, leading to annual losses of up to N2.5 trillion.
Abubakar Dantsoho, managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) called it “the most significant initiative since the 2003 port reforms.”
The first phase of the project, BusinessDay learned, will be tailored for imports. Importers can submit applications for licenses, certificates and permits from Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQ) “without having to go there physically.”
“Exports will come in later,” a representative said. “We want to learn first…We don’t want to cause any disruptions.”
During the last stakeholder meeting in October 2025, the steering committee, led by Tola Fakolade, head of the NSW project secretariat said that up to 60 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), associations, security agencies, and trade service providers are lined up for integration into the “One-Stop Shop” upon rollout.
Nigeria has been grooming the idea of a Single Window for roughly 20 years, though the project only gained significant, actionable momentum in the last few years.
Expected outcomes of a successful launch in March according to the project’s principals are efficient collection of customs duties and other trade-related taxes by letting traders submit all trade-related information including permits, licenses, and customs declarations electronically through a single platform, eliminating the need to interact with multiple government agencies.
Other benefits are lower administrative costs and increased foreign investment through transparent and secure trade procedures.
Since the first stakeholder meeting in January 2025, when the Committee reported plans for testing and training, it had undergone a series of consultations and onboarding sessions with the World Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria, the shipping and airport authorities, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, the Nigeria Police, and other key players to prepare for the rollout.
