By Henry Uche
The Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN) over the weekend said exporters or agents willing to move products to countries under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) shuld obtain permits, licences, certificates and other relevant documentations from appropriate government agencies as the intra- continental trade kicks off.
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) revealed in its newletter that, apart from getting regulatory approvals from relevant bodies, comprising the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC); Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON); Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC); Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) and others, exporters and agents must confirm that their exports fall within the permitted range of goods and services permitted by the AfCTA agreement.
NOTN stated that exporters and agents needed to create a bill of entry, attach the permits from government agencies and make reservation with shipping or airline firms to avoid hitches.
“The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) is the issuer of the certificate. However, NACCIMA must vet the application. Documents such as bill of lading, certificate of analysis, certificate of origin, packing list, certificate of origin and certificate of analysis are required for shipment to be executed.
“Similarly, AfCTA trading documents like supplier/producer’s declaration form, AfCTA certificate of origin, and origin of declaration form are to be provided for ease of export among other protocol to be observed if intra-African trade must be lifted by as much as 52 per cent by 2022, according to United Nations Economic Commission for Africa,” the trade negotiator said.
The statement added that Nigeria joined 53 other countries in Africa on January 1 to set in motion the world’s biggest trade bloc, in terms of participating nations, that will speed up easy and efficient intra-continental trade, marked by few restrictions and less complex checks of goods across national borders and ports of entry.