NAFDAC, SON hiccups slow single window rollout 

By Efe Onodjae

Challenges arising from backlog clearing documents at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, have slowed operations on the National Single Window, NSW, cargo clearing platform in the early phase of its rollout, officials NSW have disclosed.

Speaking during a media engagement in Lagos, Director of the NSW Secretariat, Tola Fakolade, said the platform experienced delays in approvals and processing due to difficulties encountered while reconciling data obtained from government agencies and international partners.

According to him, the challenges became more severe within the first few weeks after the platform went live, forcing authorities to establish a special data migration team to clean and transfer the records into the NSW system.

“We realised that because of the increasing pressure on approvals, we needed to provide some kind of temporary relief for importers affected by the migration challenges,” he said.

Fakolade disclosed that issues linked to SON approvals have since declined by over 60 per cent following interventions introduced by the NSW management, while about 99 per cent of complaints received on the platform had been resolved.

He explained that most of the remaining complaints were related to user knowledge gaps and documentation requirements rather than system failures.

The NSW director also revealed that the platform processed 39,039 applications for licences, permits, certificates and other trade-related documents within eight weeks of the deployment of phase one.

A breakdown of the applications showed that SON accounted for about 79 per cent of total submissions with 30,937 applications, while NAFDAC represented roughly 20 per cent with 7,942 applications.

The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA, processed 138 applications, while the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, NAQS, handled 22 applications within the review period.

Fakolade further disclosed that 7,567 users had been onboarded onto the platform, comprising importers, freight forwarders, licensed customs agents and clearing agents.

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