Ahead of the Friday deployment of phase one of the National Single Window, licensed customs agents, under the auspices of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, have raised the alarm over what they described as duplication of the Trade Facilitation Agreement by the NSW.

The group disclosed this in a letter titled, ‘Duplication of Single Window application in Nigerian Customs Service Act No. 35 of 2023 and the Tax Administration Act No. 5 of 2025 as an impediment and obstacle to the clearance of goods from Nigerian ports’, signed by its National President, Lucky Amiwero, and addressed to President Bola Tinubu.

Amiwero explained that the NSW platform also usurps the function of the Nigeria Customs Service.

He called for the need to urgently suspend the platform, which he said has the potential for a multiplicity of unspecified charges, with the overburden of clearing costs imposed by various agencies on importers and licensed customs agents, making Nigerian ports the most expensive in the world.

Amiwero also warned that the platform will lead to cargo diversion to neighbouring countries, as it will create obstacles to trade.

“There is the urgent need to suspend the implementation of the National Single Window, which contravenes the Trade Facilitation Agreement, with the duplication and outright usurping of the function of the Nigeria Customs Service, with a serious multiplicity of charges that are not specified, and with the overburden of clearing costs imposed by various agencies on importers and licensed customs agents, making our port the most expensive in the world. The contradiction and limitation of the provision, which will create obstacles to trade and serious diversion of goods to our neighbouring countries, will affect foreign direct investment,” Amiwero said.

According to him, the NSW portal contravenes the International Convention on Trade Facilitation, which established “the Single Window under Articles 4-(1)-(5) and is also domesticated under Section 4-(d) of the NCS Act, which clearly states to promote trade facilitation in line with international convention and agreement as it relates to customs administration”.

The trade procedure expert reiterated that the NSW portal has no relation with the Nigerian Administration Act, “which is only for tax matters. It usurps, duplicates and contravenes all provisions of the Nigeria Customs Act 35 of 2023. It contravenes international best practice and domestic application on Trade Facilitation.”

Amiwero stressed that the Nigeria Revenue Service is for tax matters, while the NCS is a trade procedure expert, adding that officers of the NCS were trained in classification, interpretation, treatment, and application of trade laws under the World Customs Organisation.

“Customs procedures are quite different from tax matters, and an organisation that is not trained on customs matters cannot streamline import, export, and excise procedures, as contained in Section 83; the revenue service is not trained for such,” he said.

Meanwhile, earlier in the month, Vanguard reported that a maritime expert and the Chief Consultant at Global Transport Policy, Dr Segun Musa, had described the NSW as a shell to house agencies, adding that Nigerians should not expect the project to transform cargo clearance.

He said that unless the agencies under the NSW are properly equipped with infrastructure, the initiative will fail to deliver meaningful change.

“Bringing agencies together under the NSW is not the solution. Interactions may be faster, but without the necessary infrastructure, the effort will be frustrated. There has been a lot of noise that Single Window will change the dynamics; it can’t change anything. There is so much noise about a single window. The situation report as of today is that it is just an ordinary shell. What will drive it is the components inside. What are those components? They are the agencies that are warehoused. The shell will only warehouse the agencies to have first-hand information and interactions,” Musa said. (The PUNCH)