PEBEC targets seven days cargo clearance at Nigerian Ports

…Digital one- stop-shop for MDAs

…Small Claims Courts at the Sub-national levels

…Mulls sanctions for violators of PEBEC rules at the Ports

The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) on Tuesday rolled out special plans to drives the federal government’s Ease of Doing Business, saying efforts are on to reduce the average cargo dwell time at Nigerian ports, as part of measures to aide trade efficiency, lower logistics costs and strengthen the country’s competitiveness.

Zara Audu Director-General of PEBEC, disclosed this on Tuesday while briefing State House journalists at the presidential Villa, Abuja.

Zara, who noted that the activities of multiple federal government agencies, Cargo Operators and other unauthorized groups were slowing down activities at the nation’s Ports, said PEBEC is working on introducing “Digital one-stop shop, leveraging technology, to fast track activities at the nation’s Ports.

She also revealed that PEBEC, in association with the government at the sub-national levels, is working on introducing”Small claims courts”, to be situated at the sub-national levels, to deal with minor business cases to also fast track conflicts resolutions at that level.

These Commercial Courts will help to strengthen the judiciary to take care of cases that don’t need to go to the regular courts.

“Business cases should be handled by these special courts, so that such cases can be cleared within a period of 12 months,” Zara said.

Zara disclosed that PEBEC is now ready to enforce rules at the Ports while violators will face rests and prosecution

“We want evidence. The reason why they violate the rules. When we carried out the last exercise, we were not able to arrest because the checkpoints were there. Yes, the police officials, the people that we found at those checkpoints were officials.

“There are oficial check points for various agencies, we have clearly mapped out the legal check points.

“We will prosecute we are back in Lagos either September or October, the port was hitherto extremely porous.

” We have now carried out sensitisation for the truckers, because the truckers and the freight forwarders are the main people who are responsible for the problems

“We have already done some engagement, but we are having a more robust one in September, I believe, or October. I’m not sure which dates they picked because they are trying to get the entire union together, you know, to work with us.

Audu said the council had identified the prolonged clearance of cargo as a major constraint to imports and exports, particularly when compared with neighbouring countries such as Ghana and the Benin Republic.

“As as a resolution from the committee that was set up, we were tasked to try and bring down our cargo dwell time from 21 days to seven days. We worked assiduously with initiatives such as our joint inspection, which was designed to ensure that when cargos are berth, all agencies coordinates the effort to clearing the the the ship on time, so that the the the turnaround time is quicker.

” For starters, we also have coordinated efforts for inspection of cargos. We’ve also moved away from physical inspection of cargos to scanners, which also has optimized the service. The whole idea is to ensure that containers that arrive in Nigeria are cleared out within seven days. It’s a work in progress.

Zara also explained that PEBEC established a committee in the Office of the Vice President in April presently coordinating Ministries, Departments and Agencies operating within the ports corridor to streamline the movement of imports and exports.

According to her, the government has introduced joint cargo inspections and is replacing physical examinations with scanner-based inspections to improve efficiency and shorten vessel and container turnaround time.

She further revealed that PEBEC would equip truckers with body cameras as part of efforts to strengthen accountability and obtain credible evidence against extortion and other operational abuses along the ports corridor.

She explained that the initiative would complement a broader stakeholder engagement with truckers and freight forwarders, who are among those most affected by customs-related bottlenecks, with a more comprehensive sensitisation programme scheduled for September or October.

She identified the National Single Window as a major component of the reform, saying it has brought relevant agencies onto a unified digital platform and simplify the documentation required for importing and exporting goods.

“The National Single Window is streamlining all the agencies and placing them on one mainstream software infrastructure that will enable them to coordinate seamlessly in terms of the documentation needed for the import and export of goods,” she stated.

She added that PEBEC had conducted visits to the ports in January, March and July to ensure that illegal checkpoints removed along the Apapa and Tin Can Island corridors did not return.
“We no longer have illegal checkpoints within the ports corridor in Apapa and Tin Can. We intend to sustain this. Our next visit will be in September, and we will continue the exercise for the next three years until it becomes the norm,” she said.

The PEBEC DG revealed that it has strengthened interaction between businesses and government through the ReportGov platform, which connects businesses directly with 69 business-facing ministries, departments and agencies.

She highlighted that the platform, relaunched in June 2025, had evolved from a complaint channel into a government-wide grievance resolution and accountability mechanism, allowing businesses to escalate challenges and receive responses within 72 hours.

She noted that physical ReportGov kiosks had also been deployed at major airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt, as well as at the Apapa and Tin Can seaports, to bring government services closer to businesses.

Audu said the 69 business-facing MDAs had been organised into clusters to reduce duplication, improve coordination and provide faster responses to businesses.

She cited the memorandum of understanding between the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control as one of the outcomes of the initiative, explaining that it would reduce repeated certification processes and the burden placed on industries.

“The objective is to simplify the whole process of doing business in Nigeria and ensure that we operate at our optimum as a country. This represents a significant shift because this level of accountability was an issue before President Bola Tinubu came into office, and as such, we decided that it was important for us to ensure that the optimum responsiveness from all business facing MDAs is assured for all people doing business in Nigeria, we’ve also started to bring our government closer by ensuring that all the business-facing MDAs, like I said earlier on, are able to engage.”

At the subnational level, the PEBEC Director-General said ease-of-doing-business councils had been activated to strengthen coordination between federal and state governments, advance the digitalisation of public services and support the establishment of one-stop business centres.

“We continue to work with the World Bank on our State Action Business Environment Reform Program, SABA, whereby we there is a 750 million dollar fund for the states. We are actually in the final year of this program, and we are still working with the states to be able to access this fund directly from the World Bank.

“Its a loan, and as such, we need to prepare the states in such a way that this loan is being implemented for the right purpose, so that they are able to repay. Of course, we know it’s not free money, so as such, we need to prepare them.” She added.

She added that PEBEC was working with the World Bank through the State Action on Business Enabling Reforms Programme to assist states in accessing funding and implementing reforms in digital connectivity, land administration and the harmonisation of taxes and levies.

She further disclosed that small claims courts had been established in all states to provide affordable dispute-resolution mechanisms for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

“Every state in Nigeria now has a small claims court. This is important for MSMEs because they can pursue eligible claims without necessarily engaging a lawyer,” she said.

The PEBEC DG added that the council was promoting alternative dispute resolution and specialised commercial courts to ensure that business-related disputes were resolved within shorter periods.

She said the council would continue to address barriers such as limited access to finance, duplication of responsibilities and inter-agency conflicts, while developing digital one-stop shops and launching the Enable Her project to support informal businesses in transitioning into the formal economy.