September 20, (THEWILL) – Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has said it is driving Nigeria’s non-oil export scheme with speed as a mark of its commitment to the country’s diversification initiative.
The bank has also explained that the practical steps it adopted to achieve the objective place it ahead of its peers who may be foot-driving to embrace the scheme amid rising headwinds.
The Deputy Managing Director (DMD), UBA, Muyiwa Akinyemi, disclosed these at the recently concluded annual conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICA) held in Lagos with the theme, “Boosting Domestic Capacity for Sustainable Export Earnings”.
In his presentation titled, ‘Boosting Domestic Capacity for Sustainable
Export Earnings – UBA Perspective’, Akinyemi shared some key interventions that UBA had launched to facilitate domestic export in line with the diversification drive of the Nigerian economy.
These include a $200 million non-oil export trade financing programme developed by the bank to bridge the working capital requirements of SMEs/commercial exporters at the concessionary interest rate.
He said that the bank had also developed a favourable collateral structure and provided project and structured trade financing towards enhancing export capacities of manufacturing organisations.
He said that top 200 non-oil exporters controlled over 95%/US$4.2 billion of the industry volume in 2021 noting that UBA facilitated $1.34billion/31% in non-oil export volume in 2021 FY, making UBA No.1 export bank in Nigeria and No. 1 export bank for three years running.
Akinyemi itemised the following as the key activities the bank embarked upon to facilitate domestic export drive.
These include US$200 million Non-oil export trade financing programme to bridge working capital requirements of SME/commercial exporters at concessionary interest rate and favourable collateral structure, and Provision of project & structured trade financing to enhance export capacities of manufacturing as well as commodity aggregators.
Others are Dedicated export desks and an export manager for our business to lead the charge of our export business arrangements and UBA Afritrade – to facilitate regional trade and settlements that start and end within the UBA ecosystem across Africa.
Also included are “Strong Partnerships with Export focused Agencies in Nigeria CBN/NEPC/NIRSAL” and “Pilot bank to AfCFTA/PAPSS to facilitate Regional Trade payments across Africa, commencing in 5 Countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, S/Leone and Liberia).
“Creating Market Access for exporters across our 23 other Countries in Africa, USA, Europe & UAE”, the bank boss stated.
Explaining further, the DMD claimed that UBA is a “Leading Partner Bank on CBN RT 200 program across the 5 pillars centred on Operational Efficiency as it pursues Robust IT platform to support registration of NXPs, payment of duties and associated levies.
“Treasury Products & solutions for Exporters, Direct correspondent banking relationships within the UBA network and Collaboration with various Export Associations to advance their capabilities & provision of Financial Advisory amongst others” are also listed on the bank’s avenues of promoting domestic export drive through sustained earnings.
Akinyemi listed insecurity across the country, including
industrial areas; dearth of skilled manpower, low export
capacity, high cost of transportation and inadequate access to funds/high interest rate on commercial bank loans as among the challenges of boosting domestic export drive.
Others are the absence of an official framework for distribution of export products, dilapidated road networks, inadequate functional rail system,
high cost of electricity in the face of inadequate supply, over-regulation and duplication of roles by Government agencies and high cost of technology among others.
According to him, these challenges make the economy susceptible to fluctuations in revenue, occasioned by the usual instability associated with the prices of crude oil in the international market.
“Successive governments have made differing efforts at diversifying the revenue sources of the economy by promoting non-oil export trade which cumulatively impacts on overall economic growth”, Akinyemi said.
About the Author
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
