The federal government has intensified efforts to reduce average cargo clearance time at Nigerian ports from 21 days to seven, as part of measures to improve trade efficiency and strengthen the country’s competitiveness against neighboring countries such as Benin Republic and Ghana.
Director General of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, Zahra Audu, told reporters at the State House that the council has worked through joint cargo inspections to ensure agencies coordinate clearance efforts, and has shifted from physical inspection toward scanner based examination to speed up processing. She said a committee established in the Office of the Vice President in April 2026 is coordinating the ministries and agencies operating within the ports corridor toward the seven day target.
She said the National Single Window initiative is streamlining documentation by bringing relevant agencies onto a unified digital platform, and confirmed that illegal checkpoints previously removed along the Apapa and Tin Can Island corridors have not returned, with the council planning follow up visits in September and continuing oversight for the next three years.
Audu also highlighted the ReportGov platform, relaunched in June 2025, which connects businesses with 69 business facing agencies and now functions as a broader grievance resolution mechanism guaranteeing responses within 72 hours, with physical kiosks deployed at major airports and seaports. She cited a memorandum of understanding between the Standards Organization of Nigeria and the food and drug regulator as one outcome of the initiative, aimed at reducing duplicate certification processes for businesses.
She said ease of doing business councils have been activated at the state level to improve coordination and support digitalization of public services, and that the council is working with the World Bank through a 750 million dollar state reform funding programme to help states improve digital connectivity, land administration and tax harmonization. She noted that small claims courts have now been established in every state to give small businesses an affordable route to resolve disputes without necessarily engaging a lawyer, alongside continued efforts to promote alternative dispute resolution and support informal businesses in transitioning into the formal economy.
