July 24, (THEWILL) – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been commended for some deliberate actions it took in the areas of trade processes automation in collaboration with the government and other stakeholders, stressing that such moves have helped to foster effective trade facilitation and efficiency in ease of doing business for increased activities in the country.
The Chairman, Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS)/Director, Trade and Exchange Department, CBN, Dr Ozoemena Nnaji gave the insight in his welcome address delivered Friday at the year 2021 sensitisation seminar for exporters, regulators and stakeholders held at Marriott Hotel in Lagos.
According to Dr Nnaji such achievement is aimed at boosting Non-oil exports and to benefit the exporters in this value chain segment.
He stated that the recent implementation of the automation of the export processes calls for continuous collaboration amongst all the stakeholders in the export value chain.
Explaining further, Nnaji added that “CBN recently introduced the RT200 scheme, its an initiative by the apex bank to grow the non-oil export trade in order to boost FX earning to the country. The scheme has five pillars, one of which is the biannual non-oil export summit. The summit is a forum where stakeholders for non-oil export trade gather to deliberate on way forward for non-oil export, and the drive through achieving $200 billion in repatriation of non-oil export proceeds in the next 3-6 years”.
“Recently, the CBN in conjunction with Bankers committee held the maiden summit in Lagos successfully. The purpose of this forum, is to boost non-oil export trade, address issues and further recommend actions in order to ease non-oil trade and improve on the non-oil FX earnings to the country”, he added.
The seminar with the theme: “The Export of Agricultural Commodities and Solid Minerals in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges” was organised by the Technical Committee on Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) to create awareness on export trade, through information sharing on the procedures and guidelines for export of Nigerian products.
In the same vein, Managing Director/CEO, Fidelity Bank Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe had earlier in a business forum emphasised on why export of agricultural commodities and solid minerals has become central.
According to her, “the Nigerian agricultural sector employs two thirds of the entire force and is the largest sector of the economy”.
She also opined that the solid mineral sector with huge potential for export earnings remains largely underdeveloped.
To her, there is urgent need to diversify the economy away from oil export, adding that it provides the needed raw materials for other sectors.
Other areas Mrs Onyeali-Ikpe feels the sector is crucial is in the areas of earning from exchange from non-oil sector; recovery of lost export opportunities and to address our trade deficit in the Agric and solid minerals sectors.
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