National Single Window Portal Gains Traction, Records 39,039 LPCO Applications in Eight Weeks

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The National Single Window portal has received a total of 39,039 licence, certificate, permit, and other document applications within eight weeks of its phase one deployment.

The Director of the NSW Secretariat, Tola Fakolade, disclosed this in Lagos on Friday while briefing maritime journalists on the platform’s performance since its March 2026 go-live.

“Over the last eight weeks since go-live, approximately 39,039 LPCO applications have been submitted through the platform since the go-live date. This indicates growing reliance on the NSW for the submission and processing of trade-related licences, permits, certificates, and other documents,” Fakolade said.

Breaking down the figures, he said the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) accounted for the largest share with 30,937 applications, followed by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) with 7,942. The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) recorded 138 applications, while the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) submitted 22.

On user onboarding, Fakolade said 7,567 registered users had been brought onto the platform within the period, comprising traders, importers, licensed customs agents, clearing and forwarding agents, and other private-sector stakeholders. The breakdown showed 6,935 importers, 359 clearing and forwarding agents, 104 freight forwarders, and 169 licensed customs agents.

Fakolade also noted progress on the Air Cargo Manifest Module, which went live on 27 March 2026 with DHL as the pilot airline. A total of 136 manifests have since been submitted, with eight airlines and courier operators now active on the module.

On training, he said the NSW commenced preparatory sessions in February 2026 across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano, targeting both government agencies and private-sector stakeholders.

“End-user training for private stakeholders is still ongoing to ensure that new users continue to receive the guidance required to fully understand the NSW platform and carry out their respective activities effectively,” he said.

A total of 2,990 private stakeholders were trained, covering importers, exporters, freight forwarders, licensed customs agents, and other users.

“On Public stakeholder training, a total of 579 MDA representatives were trained. The training was designed to ensure that MDA officers understood the NSW process flow, their agency-specific responsibilities, and how to carry out assigned tasks such as application review, approvals, escalations, and stakeholder support. Regulatory agencies trained included NAQS, SON, NESREA, NAFDAC, among others,” he added.

Fakolade said the rollout of phase two is scheduled to begin in June, during which the agency will finalise the manifest rollout for all airlines and shipping lines to enable submission of manifests through the NSW platform.

Speaking on the challenges the agency is having, he said the level of stakeholders compliance is still at 30percent, while over 70percent are non compliant and still trying to circumvent the system.

“They decide to pay less on permits or bring wrong document in order to circumvent the system, if you have this level of non-compliance and you bring a new system that actually forcing them to comply, they would start kicking back” Fakolade stated.

He said that the challenges and teething problems around SON and NAFDAC which the stakeholders have complained seriously about have since been resolved.
He attributed the challenges to “learning curve and knowledge gap. The second issue is data migration, all these have been resolved”