•NESG decries industrial decline

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has disclosed that the 24-hour port operations initiative aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the maritime sector faced challenges because critical operators, including banks, shipping companies and terminal operators, were not fully integrated into the arrangement.

The blame game emerged just as the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) also raised concerns about a growing trend of deindustrialisation in Nigeria, warning that the country’s manufacturing sector remains weak and heavily concentrated in only a few subsectors.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Dr Adewale Adeniyi, noted that while NCS had already digitised core processes, including pre-arrival documentation, cargo declaration, duty payment and release communication, operators continued to cause delay due to their reliance on physical documentation.

Adeniyi, at a meeting with the Director General of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Zahrah Audu, said the success of round-the-clock port operations required full participation across the logistics chain, noting that NCS deployed officers to support the initiative, which met roadblocks due to inadequate integration of critical operators.

He added that the service was advancing plans to establish a fully paperless Customs environment, with core processes, including pre-arrival documentation, cargo declaration, duty payment, and release communication, already digitised.

Adeniyi explained that the service had institutionalised regular engagements with stakeholder groups, including the American Business Council and other trade associations, to address operational concerns and strengthen cooperation within the trade ecosystem.

He noted that while some concerns raised by stakeholders had already been addressed, others would continue to make future reforms within the service.

Earlier in her remarks, the PEBEC Director-General, Zahrah Audu, said the council was implementing a 90-day business environment enhancement programme to address operational challenges identified in its Business Facilitation Compliance Report, released in November 2025.

Also speaking, the Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of ICT and Modernisation, Oluyomi Adebakin, said vessel arrival schedules had been providing sufficient information for operational planning at the ports.

The NESG’s concern was contained in the group’s latest 2025 Q4 GDP Alert, which noted that although Nigeria’s economic growth is gradually improving, it remains too slow to generate sufficient jobs or significantly reduce poverty.

They also pointed to productivity constraints across key sectors, particularly agriculture, manufacturing and trade, as major factors limiting the economy’s ability to expand output and create employment at scale.

According to the NESG, Nigeria’s current economic growth trajectory remains insufficient to tackle unemployment and poverty despite signs of gradual improvement. It noted that structural challenges across key sectors continued to constrain productivity and economic expansion.

The group added that persistent structural bottlenecks, such as poor infrastructure, limited access to finance, unreliable electricity supply, and insecurity, continue to increase operating costs and disrupt business activities.

Food, beverages, tobacco, cement and textiles, it noted, accounted for about 74 per cent of total manufacturing output in Q4 2025. Subsections such as oil refining, motor vehicle assembly and chemical and pharmaceutical production still contribute relatively little to overall manufacturing output.

While the manufacturing sector remains weak, the report highlighted some positive developments in agriculture and noted that improvements recorded over the last three quarters of 2025 had contributed to a gradual decline in food inflation.

Finally, the group stressed that sustaining agricultural productivity would be critical to maintaining stable food prices and supporting overall economic growth. (The Guardian)

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