Airlines integrate into Nigeria’s Single Window, as importer enrollment hits 7,000
Two months after its initial rollout, Nigeria’s National Single Window (NSW) has seen a significant surge in enrollment from importers and international air cargo operators, while the integration process for maritime shipping lines enters its final stages.
Latest statistics from the NSW Secretariat show that the digital platform has registered 7,567 users, processed 39,039 License, Permit, and Certificate (LPC) applications, and received 136 air cargo manifests from global carriers.
A breakdown of the user database reveals that importers dominate the platform with 6,935 registered profiles. This is followed by 359 clearing and forwarding agents, 169 licensed customs brokers, and 104 freight forwarders.
In terms of regulatory documentation, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) recorded the highest volume, processing 30,937 applications.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) followed with 7,942 approvals. Additionally, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) cleared 138 filings, while the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) processed 22.
The first phase of the deployment centered on air and sea manifest submissions, kicking off with a four-week pilot scheme involving DHL and Grimaldi Shipping at the PTML Terminal in Lagos. Thus far, only air cargo manifests have been successfully uploaded, all originating from international airlines.
Out of the 136 manifests transmitted, DHL accounted for 121, Ethiopian Airlines submitted eight, RwandAir filed three, and EgyptAir sent two. British Airways and Royal Air Maroc each uploaded a single manifest. Meanwhile, Air Côte d’Ivoire and Delta Air Lines have completed their technical integration with the platform, though they are yet to file any cargo manifests.
Earlier in February, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) directed all air cargo operators to connect to the NSW portal, in alignment with a 2025 Ministry of Finance directive.
The Director of the NSW Secretariat, Tola Fakolade, disclosed that discussions are ongoing with domestic carriers, such as Air Peace, to integrate their systems. He added that final end-to-end testing with shipping lines is scheduled to begin this week.
Despite the steady adoption, the digital trade portal faced initial technical hitches, including system glitches and delays in permit verification. The Secretariat received a total of 9,800 complaints from users. While the first week of operation saw an average of 1,500 issue reports, that figure dropped to 800 over the past month.
Logistics operators initially encountered difficulties uploading regulatory documents from SON and NAFDAC, alongside general registration bottlenecks.
The Director of Operations at the NSW Secretariat, Peter Ekunkoya, confirmed that all but 135 of these complaints have been resolved, with 50 currently undergoing Service Level Agreement (SLA) assessments.
To mitigate clearance delays triggered by technical issues during Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) processing, the Secretariat and SON introduced temporary fallback protocols for attaching shipment certificates. Furthermore, following talks with NAFDAC management, importers have been granted permission to use expired 2025 regulatory licenses for Form M applications until the end of May. Importers who have hit their import quotas but have consignments stranded at the ports can also submit verifiable shipping documents, such as Bills of Lading, to facilitate clearance.
Government regulators, alongside representatives from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, have held talks with terminal operators and shipping lines to secure waivers on demurrage and port rent accumulated due to the platform’s initial downtime. However, industry stakeholders report that these intervention efforts have largely been unsuccessful.
Addressing the dispute, Fakolade explained that an agreement was reached requiring clearing agents and importers affected by the system downtime to present time-stamped evidence of their failed transactions. These logs will be reviewed by terminal operators and shipping companies to evaluate eligibility for waivers or discounted storage fees.
Over the next two months, the National Single Window team aims to harmonize conflicting Harmonized System (HS) Codes across various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Following this reconciliation, the platform will transition into Phase 2, which will onboard remaining government agencies and establish frameworks for export documentation.