Centre advocates more support mechanisms for National Single Window

The Sea Empowerment and Research Center (SEREC) has called for more support mechanisms for the National Single Window (NSW) that can enhance its stakeholder confidence, improve adoption rates, and ensure long-term sustainability without disrupting the current implementation roadmap of the NSW.

The Center made the call in an advisory highlighting its Perspective on Strengthening National Single Window (NSW) Implementation. Fwdr Eugene Nweke Rff, Head of Research, made the advisory available to PortNews in Lagos.

SEREC highlighted the need for the establishment of a Capacity Building and Change Management Thematic Group to drive stakeholder education and digital literacy programmes, identify operational bottlenecks encountered by users and recommend practical solutions, facilitate structured engagement between government agencies, traders, customs brokers, freight forwarders, terminal operators, shipping companies, and other stakeholders, and promote system acceptance and reduce resistance to change.

According to the Centre, “the success of any digital trade platform depends not only on technology but also on the preparedness of its users. Such a group should function as a support and advisory mechanism rather than an additional approval layer, thereby preserving implementation speed.”

Given the multi-agency nature of the NSW, SEREC canvassed for a Project Steering and Stakeholder Coordination Committee to serve as a strategic oversight platform responsible for: Providing policy guidance and implementation direction, Monitoring integration milestones and stakeholder compliance, Promoting transparency and accountability across participating agencies, Enhancing investor and business confidence through structured governance, and Facilitating dispute resolution and inter-agency coordination where necessary.

“Importantly, the committee’s role should remain strategic and facilitative, avoiding duplication of functions already assigned to the NSW implementation team,” SEREC noted.

The Center averred that, to ensure the long-term effectiveness of the platform, the implementation framework of the NSW, should be guided by principles that promote transparency and accountability, data security and privacy protection, operational efficiency and interoperability, stakeholder inclusiveness, continuous improvement and innovation, and risk-based management and regulatory certainty.

According to SEREC, “a precautionary approach should be adopted when introducing new operational features, ensuring that system modifications are subjected to appropriate testing and stakeholder validation before full deployment.”

The Center added that while the NSW should provide sufficient visibility and traceability of transactions to enhance compliance and trade facilitation, such visibility must be balanced with protection of commercially sensitive information, robust cybersecurity safeguards, clearly defined user-access privileges, audit trail mechanisms for monitoring transactions, and data governance protocols that prevent unauthorized access or system abuse.

“The objective should be to create a transparent, secure, and intelligence-driven platform where activities can be monitored for compliance purposes without exposing confidential business information or distorting trade operations,” SEREC submitted.

Concluding, the Centre observed thus “The establishment of thematic capacity-building structures and strategic oversight mechanisms should not be viewed as a review of the current NSW implementation architecture but rather as supportive instruments designed to strengthen stakeholder preparedness, institutional coordination, system integrity, and public confidence. If properly structured, these measures will accelerate adoption, reduce implementation risks, and contribute to the realization of a truly integrated, efficient, and globally competitive National Single Window ecosystem.

“In essence, the focus should be on “supporting implementation” rather than “restructuring implementation,” thereby sustaining the current momentum while strengthening governance, capacity, and stakeholder ownership.”