…uncleared container volume up 50% in one month

Delays linked to the migration to the National Single Window (NSW) platform by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised the volume of containers trapped at the port by 50 per cent from 10,000 units in March to 15,000 units in May. Findings by New Telegraph revealed that uncleared containers were laden with goods worth N750 billion.

It was gathered that no waiver has been issued by National Single Window (NSW) secretariat despite assurance by the government as NAFDAC extended the validity of expired 2025 e-licences to ease mounting congestion at the nation’s seaports.

The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, had said that the extension was part of a package of interventions approved by management to address bottlenecks in the processing of Licences, Permits, Certificates and Other Approvals (LPCOs), which have slowed cargo clearance and worsened port congestion.

However, the Managing Director of Sceptre Consult Limited and a cargo consolidator, Jayeola Ogamode, explained that importers of the boxes, some of which are laden with perishable goods, were trapped at the port over Single Window migration failures.

He noted that on a monthly basis, more than N3.5 trillion worth of goods flooded the port, noting that about N350 billion or 10 per cent of the consignments have not exited the ports because of hitches experienced during the NSW launch despite government promises.

Ogamode said that all the port terminals had been choked with containers, saying that no waiver had been granted to importers of the trapped containers at the port since the launch of single window platforms.

Ogamode emphasised that traffic congestion had returned to port access road due to many containers in the ports. Meanwhile, there is move by Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to decongest the port access corridors of gridlock, following poor execution of NSW.

The two-day clean-up and enforcement operation along the Lagos port corridor will commence on May 14 and 15, 2026 to address congestion in the port and traffic bottlenecks around the Apapa and Tin Can ports. The Director-General of Environment Council, Zahrah Audu, explained that the exercise was aimed at improving trade facilitation and reducing the cost of doing business in Nigeria.