The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), working with the Bankers’ Committee, the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), and other non-oil export stakeholders, has unanimously agreed to find long-term solutions to export bottlenecks within 90 days.
Non-oil exporters face a number of challenges, including logistics constraints, financing issues, and regulatory issues.
One solution is to establish an immediate dedicated export route for the easy export of goods and services, followed by the establishment of a national single window for the automation of processes and documentation to improve the ease of exporting goods and services and, as a result, earn foreign exchange.
“I want to appeal to the NPA and Nigerian customs that we establish a working group comprised of the banker’s committee, the NPA, customs, and shipping lines to resolve two issues,” CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said at the RT200 Non-Oil Export Summit organized by the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee.
“We read about people who want to export goods out of Nigeria queuing for months before their goods can be shipped,” he said. Because time is of the essence, what can the NPA and Nigerian Customs do for exporters in the short term, whether you want to create some sort of dedicated route where they can easily export their goods? We desperately need those export proceeds. According to reports, Nigerian exporters prefer to transport goods by road from Lagos to Accra, then to the Republic of Benin, in order to find an easy route out of the country. We will lose the export proceeds as a result of this.”
“We need one system, and that is the national single window,” said Mohammed Bello-Koko, managing director of NPA. It is a project that has been running for more than 15 years. And this government has attempted to adopt and implement it as well. A committee chaired by the vice president has been working to put in place the national single window.
“The national single window is a single interplay platform where you exchange data, where you feel only one form is enough for Nigerian Customs, standardisation of Nigeria, and so on and so forth.”
“It is also a payment platform, whether you are an importer or exporter; if you are paying five government agencies and you are supposed to pay a total of N100,000, and the system distributes the money automatically.” I am pleading with the Central Bank of Nigeria and everyone seated here to recognize this as a critical national project.”
Emefiele personally unveiled the RT200 FX Program on February 10, 2022, which is a Bankers’ Committee initiative aimed at raising $200 billion in non-oil export earnings over the next three to five years.
“We have seen a significant increase in non-oil export repatriation and have paid over N3.5 billion in rebates to eligible exporters,” Emefiele said.
“We are gathered here today for the maiden edition of the biannual Non-oil Export Summit to harness ideas on how we can increase the value and volume of export in the country, and improve the availability of foreign exchange therefrom. As things stand now, we really don’t have much choice but to look inward and find innovative solutions to our problems,” he added.