The Federal Government has started testing the National Single Window platform, a unified digital system designed to connect all trade-related agencies and processes. The exercise marks the first major step toward launching the platform by March 2026.
User Acceptance Testing began with key regulators and private-sector operators. CrimsonLogic, the technology vendor supporting the project, demonstrated the onboarding sequence, workflow design and navigation tools to participating agencies.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, reviewed progress onsite. Their visit underscored the government’s aim to remove duplication across agencies, cut trade costs and create a central process for documentation.
Regulatory bodies in the first test group included the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Customs Service and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria. Importers, exporters, clearing agents and freight forwarders also examined the platform.
Testing allowed each group to verify features, validate workflows and align expectations before full deployment. Officials said the exercise shows Nigeria is moving closer to operating a single, integrated trade window.
Edun and Adedeji met teams in every breakout room and reviewed their experience. Both expressed satisfaction with the progress and reaffirmed the commitment to build a transparent, technology-enabled trade environment.
At a regional summit in Abuja, President Bola Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, confirmed that the National Single Window will go live in March 2026. He said the system will cut cargo-clearance timelines from 21 days to under seven and position Nigeria to meet the African Continental Free Trade Area’s digital-trade standards.
CRFFN chief executive Kingsley Igwe said the system follows models already used in Singapore, South Korea and Rwanda. He said full adoption could lower logistics costs by up to 30 percent, strengthen Nigeria’s competitiveness and attract investment.
Igwe said manufacturers would benefit from faster clearance of raw materials, while SMEs would gain simpler access to trade tools. Freight forwarders would track consignments digitally with fewer delays.
