Single Window: Stakeholders chart way forward

As the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigeria Customs Service are to collaborate to implement the Single Window platform in the Nigerian ports, stakeholders in the industry have continued to laud the initiative and advised the two agencies on how the initiative can yield results.

According to Fola Ojutalayo, a Senior Lecturer at the Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology, Lagos, the agreement by the two government agencies is a good development.

“ It is a good development by NPA and Customs as long as they are focused to follow it up and achieve it, the problem the industry have is about not been focus and policy inconsistency. These agencies are proposing the policy now but the problem is, can there be consistency in it until it is achieved? The issue of sustainability is a major issue that needs to be looked into and find a way of establishing it. If they bring up the policy now and ensure that it is kept and implemented, then it will be a good development for our country. It is a welcome policy as long as it is maintained because another government can take up administration and destabilize the whole thing and that is where the fear comes in but apart from that, the single window is good for Nigeria,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein, a maritime lawyer, Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara, called for increased technology to make the Single Window Platform resistant to fraud and hacking by fraudsters.

“National Single Window is meant to be a one-stop shop that every stakeholder can benefit from as far as data is concerned. There is a need for high-level technology that will stand the pressure of the traffic into the portal and need for highly trained manpower to administer it; the technology must be such that it should resist hacking easily into by fraudsters,” he said.

Speaking further, he said for a successful single window operation, “there is need for independent power supply for the port industry and until there is uninterrupted power supply, the single window can’t be effective.  So far what has been implemented by Nigeria Customs Service has not been comprehensive enough,” he added