Case study
Trade & Investment Katsina State 2025–2026

Fee Transparency, Grievance Redress and Interstate Trade

Published fees and timelines across five business-enabling MDAs, a consolidated schedule of interstate trade charges, and grievance mechanisms held to a measurable service standard.

5
Business-enabling MDAs
75%
Grievance SLA target

The challenge

Businesses in Katsina faced the ordinary Nigerian problem: fees and timelines that were knowable only by asking, and levies at internal checkpoints that varied by collector. SABER addresses both — publication of fees, procedures and service delivery timelines for five key business-enabling MDAs, a consolidated schedule of all regulated interstate trade fees regardless of which agency collects them, and grievance mechanisms that actually resolve complaints within a stated time.

Our approach

We identified the business-enabling MDAs, mapped their business-related procedures, documented fees and timelines, and prepared the service level agreements and grievance procedures to sit behind them. Two workshops followed — one on grievance redress and SLA compliance, covering intake, tracking, response times, escalation and the evidence verification requires; one on trade facilitation, covering interstate charges, transparency and export promotion.

The point of a service level agreement is not the document. It is that a business can hold the State to a published commitment.

What we delivered

  • Published fees, procedures and service delivery timelines for five business-enabling MDAs
  • Consolidated schedule of regulated interstate trade fees and levies
  • Service level agreements and grievance redress procedures
  • Capacity-building workshops on GRM and SLA compliance, and on trade facilitation
  • Support to the State Committee on Export Promotion: export strategy and guidelines

Outcomes

Grievance mechanisms operating in the key MDAs against a published standard — at least half of grievances resolved within the service level agreement in Year 2, rising to three-quarters thereafter.

Partners

Katsina State Government · World Bank-supported SABER programme

The Switch Briefing

Our thinking, quarterly

Governance, reform financing, and institutional analysis — written by the people doing the work.