The Sea Empowerment and Research Centre has reiterated its support for the National Single Window, “dual clearing” and parallel manual interventions at Nigerian ports.

SEREC noted this in a statement on Thursday in Lagos. It said constructive criticism and independent scrutiny were necessary for any major national reform to succeed and deliver results.

It noted the distinction between genuine implementation gaps and sweeping conclusions that misrepresent the NSW architecture and statutory responsibilities, describing the NSW as a necessary and strategic reform for Nigeria’s trade facilitation and global competitiveness.

SEREC pointed out that phase one challenges did not prove the policy was defective, but showed areas needing refinement and correction and that the focus should be on evidence-based diagnosis, integration, and progressive optimisation, not on uncritical celebration or outright rejection.

The group clarified that physical intervention after electronic release does not automatically amount to “dual clearing”.

It explained that customs and other agencies retained legal powers for risk management, intelligence, security and compliance checks.

SEREC asked whether interventions were authorised, necessary, documented, and risk-based, rather than repetitive and undocumented.

The centre condemned arbitrary interference with cargo, but warned against prohibiting lawful examinations in the name of facilitation and said Nigeria’s trade environment was not yet fully compliant and required a compliance audit before blaming all checks on corruption.

SEREC advocated a transparent Trade Compliance and Intervention Performance Framework to measure and reduce legitimate interventions over time.

The centre explained that it supports ‘One Cargo, One Digital Identity’ with shared data for Customs and other government agencies. It restated that NSW’s success depended on interoperability, process harmonisation, data standards, and intelligent risk assessment, not just portal connections.

SEREC said manual processes should be reduced intelligently, with minimal physical checks, especially for high-risk goods like arms and narcotics, and cautioned against tagging all implementation delays as “institutional resistance” without evidence, and urged investigation when wrongdoing was proven.

The centre called for a phase-one lessons-learned review before expansion and urged stakeholders to make the NSW faster, smarter and more transparent.

(NAN)