The figures
were revealed in Abuja by the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Export
Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Olusegun
Awolowo, during a courtesy call on the Council by the new
Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd).
Mr. Awolowo
attributed the slump in non-oil export revenue earning to the suspension of the
Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and the
insurgence in the North East.
He said: “The situation is compounded with the non-payment of the
Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and the insurgency in the North East which is the
agricultural basket of the nation. The nation is not only losing on the
economic front, the lull in the non-oil export is also affecting the capacity
of the manufacturing sector to employ, lamenting that in the period under
review, the nation lost 50 per cent of its labour force.
The
country has taken a dip of 60 per cent in oil revenue. For any country across
the world, it is huge. However, the challenges we are having in the oil sector
are also affecting the value of our non-oil export. One of the challenges is
the continued rejection of products by foreign importers, which he noted was
due to improper documentation by clearing and forwarding agents. “
Mr. Awolowo
stated that an inquiry into some of the causes of products rejection revealed
that most exporters failed of documentation rules adding that exporters
employed the services of cheap agents who do hasty jobs for them.
Services of cheap agents
While
speaking on what the Federal Government is doing to put an end to rejection of
products from Nigeria, Mr. Awolowo stated that an inter-agency committee was
working to ensure zero rejection by 2016.
He said: “In a bid to unearth the reasons behind the rejection of our
export products in Europe, we went to London with seven agencies of government.
We visited the largest Port where Nigeria and other West African countries’
goods pass through. To our utter disgust and amazement, many of the rejects
were based on improper documentation. They route some of the goods through
fraudulent clearing and forwarding agents. We have to work with the Customs
service to address this. When we have an export portal, people can track their
exports.”
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Responding,
the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali,
assured the NEPC of the Service’s support in removing all impediments to export
trade. On the EEG which was meant to boost the nation’s exports but was
suspension by the past administration due to alleged abuse of it, Ali said that
Ministerial committee set up by the past administration would submit its
findings to President Mohammadu Buhari
for necessary action as soon as the Ministers get to work.
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