Processes initiated by the National Single Window team to address importers affected by the data migration process with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) have led to over a 60 per cent reduction in SON-related migration issues within four weeks.
The Director of Operations at the NSW Secretariat, Mr Peter Ekundayo, disclosed this during a chat with journalists in Lagos over the weekend.
Ekundayo admitted that the platform experienced migration challenges at the early stage of the process. However, he said the issues have reduced drastically.
According to him, the NSW platform has now entered what he described as a “learning curve” stage.
He explained that during the initial phase, the team discovered that some critical data were missing. He added that there were also cases where the data obtained from the agency could not be reconciled with information from international partners.
These discrepancies caused delays in approvals and processing.
“The first few weeks, especially the first week, were chaotic,” Ekundayo stated.
He said the team later cleaned up the data and began a structured migration process. However, increasing pressure on approvals forced the team to introduce temporary measures to support affected importers.
Ekundayo explained that importers whose product or shipment certificates were delayed due to migration issues were granted a temporary clearance process to prevent disruptions to their consignments.
“We needed to provide some grace period for importers affected by the missing data and migration challenges,” he said.
The NSW team launched the intervention process four weeks ago and completed it within two weeks.
Following a review conducted last week, Ekundayo said most of the migration backlog had been resolved.
“The cases we have seen in the help desk for SON-related migration issues have reduced significantly by over 60 per cent,” he stated.
He added that most of the current issues are now linked to user understanding and documentation requirements rather than technical migration failures.
According to him, the management of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria expressed satisfaction with the ongoing collaboration.
Ekundayo, however, noted that the migration process involving the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control is progressing differently.
He explained that NAFDAC experienced internal software problems in December last year, which created approval backlogs before its transition into the single window system.
He recalled that the Federal Government earlier directed NAFDAC to extend permits issued last year to ensure the availability of pharmaceuticals and other critical imports.
Ekundayo said the existing backlog has continued to affect the migration process on the NSW platform.
He also noted that the increase in compliance activities has led to a surge in applications on the portal.
“A lot more compliance is happening, so that has increased the number of applications, and they have not increased their number of resources or staff,” he said.
He assured stakeholders that the NSW team is working closely with NAFDAC to resolve the outstanding approval issues within the next two to four weeks.
Ekundayo revealed that the help desk has handled about 9,800 issues since the inception of the platform.
He said over 6,000 of the complaints were recorded within the first four weeks, with the help desk receiving an average of 1,500 issues weekly during that period.
According to him, the number of complaints has now dropped significantly to between 800 and 900 weekly.
He added that all reported issues have been resolved except for 135 cases, representing a 99 per cent resolution rate.
