By Merit Ibe
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has stated that the plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to repatriate $200 billion from non-oil export in the next three to five years requires the right policies, critical export infrastructure, international trade diplomacy and adequate funding to achieve desired results.
Noting that the major pillars of the programme, which are value-adding exports facility, non-oil commodities expansion facility, non-oil FX rebate scheme, dedicated non-oil export terminal, biannual non-oil export summit, the chamber said there was need to enlighten the public, especially experienced and potential exporters on the terms and conditions around these facilities.
President of the Chamber, Dr Chinyere Almona, stated that one major challenge in Nigeria’s export chain is the unstructured procedures that cause delays, corruption and rejection of exports, adding that these facilities should be well directed to process targeted products in which Nigeria has some comparative advantage such as sesame, cashew, cocoa into finished goods.
Almona posited that the reason for low forex revenue from exports is due to export of primary unprocessed commodities. Commending the CBN for the Targeted Credit Facility, the LCCI boss said the apex bank has intervened with more than N2trillion support to agriculture.
according to the CBN release, she caution that more investment should be made in critical infrastructure to ensure the repayment of these facilities. “Currently, there are many credit facilities extended to farmers and manufacturers that may suffer non-repayment due to the high cost of production. We urge caution in the way the CBN intervenes in various sectors of the economy as this indicates an element of a dysfunctional economic system.”
She also emphasised the need to improve the export infrastructure at the ports, create more digital platforms to reduce the human interface for exports and formulate the right policies, beyond the loans to support value addition to our exports.
“To this end, we urge the government to accelerate the plan to build domestic export warehouses by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC),” saying the the concern of the Chamber is that without infrastructure, the grants may end up as lost ventures.
“Nigeria must take bold steps to establish a trading system that supports the seamless flow of trade, establish the necessary infrastructure, create needed awareness towards exploring the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”
Almona called for deeper stakeholder consultation and collaboration with the organised private sector in the implementation of this programme.