The Sea Empowerment and Analysis Centre (SEREC) says Nigeria may save as much as N900 billion yearly in income leakages if it totally implements the Worldwide Cargo Monitoring Be aware (ICTN), a software broadly used throughout West and Central Africa to tighten port safety and improve commerce transparency.
In a coverage commentary titled “The Pressing Crucial of Implementing the ICTN in Nigeria,” SEREC’s Head of Analysis, Dr. Eugene Nweke, argued that the ICTN has turn into a strategic necessity for Nigeria’s maritime reforms. Regardless of receiving Federal Government Council approval in 2023, the system is but to go dwell, an inaction the Centre warns may have steep {financial} and safety penalties.
In keeping with Nweke, the ICTN supplies verified, pre-arrival info on all inbound cargo—permitting regulators to course of documentation forward of touchdown and drastically cut back clearance bottlenecks.
With the system in place, Nigeria may shorten cargo clearance timelines by 25–35%, curb commerce malpractices by as a lot as 40%, and improve competitiveness throughout the maritime worth chain, Information Company of Nigeria first reported.
What he stated
“With out this pre-verification system, Nigeria’s commerce regulators would proceed to function in a reactive intelligence mannequin, permitting room for cargo concealment, under-declaration and falsified manifests.
“Consultants estimated that the delay in implementation may result in an estimated annual loss from non-standardised cargo declarations and transhipment concealment between N800 billion and N1.2 trillion.
“Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Angola recorded an 18 to 22% rise in customs income and a 30 per cent drop in port clearance delays inside two years of adopting ICTN.
“The nations additionally noticed a 40% fall in false declarations throughout the identical interval.
“The delayed implementation may additionally have an effect on the graceful implementation of the Nationwide Single Window (NSW) projected for the primary quarter of 2026 and the modernisation drive of the Nigerian Customs Service,” he defined.
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) is the lead company for the ICTN rollout, working alongside the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Ports Authority, and NIMASA beneath the supervision of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Financial system.
Nevertheless, SEREC warns that ongoing reforms, together with the deliberate Nationwide Single Window (NSW) and the fast-advancing Customs modernisation programme, threat turning into fragmented if ICTN shouldn’t be built-in as the first data-verification layer.
“Authorities should recognise ICTN not as a competing system however as a strategic enabler,” Nweke stated, noting that the absence of verified pre-shipment knowledge exposes the nation to nationwide safety dangers, income leakages, and decrease international compliance rankings.
He added that Nigeria stays one of many few main buying and selling nations within the area with out an operational digital cargo observe, an omission impacting investor confidence.
