How to Export from Nigeria: The Full Document List

Exporting from Nigeria starts with one registration and then runs on per-shipment paperwork. The registration is the NEPC Exporter’s Certificate — ₦13,500, issued within one working day. Everything after it is issued per consignment by a different agency each time. Here is the whole list, with who issues what.

The one-off: register as an exporter

NEPC states plainly that this is where the process begins: registration as an exporter with NEPC is the first step. Your CAC documents are the input, so company registration comes before it.

Full detail, including the upload list for each entity type → NEPC certificate

The per-shipment documents

These are issued against a consignment, not against your company, so you obtain them again for every shipment. Budget them per container.

Quality assurance — depends on what you are shipping

Commercial documents — you produce these

Financial documents

NEPC describes the NXP as capturing the value of the export transaction, and notes it is a major prerequisite for accessing the Export Expansion Grant. Get it through your bank — it is not something you file on a government portal.

The form itself is free. The CBN states that processing Form NXP shall be free of charge. It is valid for 180 days, and your export proceeds must be repatriated within 180 days of the Bill of Lading date or you incur a 1% penalty — the detail, with the sanctions.

You will also pay the NESS Levy — 0.5% of FOB value for non-oil goods, after inspection, and the Pre-shipment Inspection Agent issues your Clean Certificate of Inspection (CCI) only once it holds both the Form NXP and the NESS receipt. Customs must not load cargo without a CCI.

Goods-movement documents

Which movement document you need follows how the goods travel: sea takes a bill of lading, air an air waybill, road a road transport bill.

The order to do it in

1. Register the company with CAC, if you have not.
2. Register as an exporter with NEPC. ₦13,500, one working day.
3. Agree the contract with your buyer, and read the payment terms carefully — if payment runs through a letter of credit, the credit’s document list is binding and every item on it must be presented exactly as written.
4. Open the NXP through your Authorised Dealer Bank for this shipment, and open your export domiciliary account at that same bank. Free, valid 180 days.
5. Book inspection and quality documents for the consignment — phytosanitary, fumigation, health or veterinary as your goods require. These are done on the goods, before departure.
6. Obtain the Certificate of Origin from NACCIMA.
7. Ship, and collect the bill of lading, air waybill or road transport bill.

Steps 4 to 6 overlap in practice. Step 5 is the one with a hard deadline attached, because an inspection cannot be performed on a container that has already sailed.

Three mistakes that cost the most

Leaving inspection until after packing. The phytosanitary certificate is issued on the consignment. There is no retroactive route, and buyers’ banks frequently release payment against it.

Treating an agent’s quote as a government fee. NEPC charges ₦13,500 for a new certificate. Quotes above that contain somebody’s service charge, which is legitimate but is not a statutory fee — see the breakdown.

Going to the wrong agency for the Certificate of Origin. It is NACCIMA. Much of the guidance online sends people to NEPC or Customs.

A note on the official portals

The infrastructure a first-time exporter is pointed at is patchy, and the addresses people circulate are often the dead ones. Checked 18 September 2026:

If someone sends you to trade.gov.ng, they are working from old notes. The live trade information portal is on the fmiti.gov.ng domain.

Where a portal is down, the agency’s phone line and physical office are the fallback, and you should build the delay into the dates you promise a buyer.

What this page does not yet cover

We publish a figure only after reading it on the issuing agency’s own site. Still outstanding:

• Phytosanitary fee — NAQS publishes the headings and no amounts (the evidence)
• Certificate of Origin fee — not yet traced to NACCIMA
• HS codes and SON / NAFDAC rules per product
• NACCIMA’s Certificate of Origin fee — NACCIMA does not publish one

Sources

• NEPC, “Export documents and procedures” — https://nepc.gov.ng/get-started/export-documents-procedures/ — the document list and issuing bodies
• NEPC e-Registration portal — https://nepc.gov.ng/ereg/exporter — fees, validity, processing time

Last verified: 18 September 2026.