Highlights of the 60-Day National Action Plan on Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria

S/No

Identified Challenges

Reforms (Ongoing & Completed)

Results

1

Goods coming into the country are stacked haphazardly, without pallets, making physical examination impractical.

Cargo imports into Nigeria are now expected to be placed in pallets.

• Quicker physical examinations.

• Utilisation of modern equipment for effective and efficient examination of cargo.

2

Manifests are not always available prior to arrival of ships, leading to sub-optimal offloading of cargo.

Terminal Operators to be provided with Cargo Manifests in advance.

• Optimised placement of containers. 

• Improved risk assessment.

3

The current practice for examination of imports forces importers to seek out and schedule by themselves dates for examination of cargo by the NCS and other relevant agencies such as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, etc.

NCS has been mandated to take a lead role in scheduling of examination of cargo.

• Single point of contact for examination.

• Same day sign-off of examination by the NCS and relevant agencies.

4

Current export process is manual, with inconsistent timelines for processing pre-shipment documentation.

Pre-shipment process for exports to be optimised.

• Up to 50% reduction in the processing time for export documentation.

• Automated scheduling of inspections by pre-shipment inspection agents.

5

Number of documents required for import and export in Nigeria is higher than other African countries.

Reduction of documentation requirements for import and export.

Reduction in time for import and export.