Nigeria gives agencies November deadline to tackle export bottlenecks

Nigeria’s federal government has set the end of November 2026 as the deadline for ministries, departments and agencies to complete the second phase of the National Single Window, a digital platform designed to remove obstacles facing exporters.

Industry, Trade and Investment Minister Jumoke Oduwole announced the deadline in Abuja during a stakeholder meeting on Phase 2 and the Export Tracker. She said the system must address fragmentation, duplication and weak coordination among agencies, which increase costs and delay shipments.

“

At the close of this engagement, we must know what we own in the Phase 2 journey, where we stand against the agreed milestones, what remains outstanding, which institutions or systems we depend on and who owns the next action, with a firm delivery date which is the end of November 2026.

“At the close of this engagement, we must know what we own in the Phase 2 journey, where we stand against the agreed milestones, what remains outstanding, which institutions or systems we depend on and who owns the next action, with a firm delivery date which is the end of November 2026,” Oduwole said.

“

It is a long time coming for Nigeria. We have joined the league of nations with a National Single Window and, for a trading nation, it was Mr President’s target and we all need to be proud of that.

The National Single Window became operational on March 27. It has since processed more than 124,614 licences and permits, registered 11,096 importers and agents, trained over 8,000 users and facilitated about 12.59 billion naira in regulatory payments. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria alone processed more than 85,000 documents through the platform and generated 9.95 billion naira in regulatory payments.

Oduwole said the launch did not complete the reform. The system’s value will depend on whether businesses experience faster, simpler and more predictable export procedures. Exporters previously identified seven major constraints, and more than half involved fragmented processes, duplicated requirements, poor coordination or inconsistent regulation. She cited repeated inspections of the same containers by different agencies as an administrative burden the platform should eliminate.

“

Trade does not happen at the border alone. It depends on the system connecting production to market, standards, finance, logistics, regulation, border processing and digital platforms.