Dr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has urged operators in the non-oil export industry to provide a dedicated route for exporters.
On Thursday in Lagos, Emefiele made the call during the CBN’s first conference on RT200 non-oil exports, which had the topic “Setting the Roadmap Toward Achieving RT200 and Non-Oil Exports for Development.”
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor of Lagos State, praised Emefiele for organizing the forum to promote non-oil exports in Nigeria. He stated that the Lekki Ports would be open to all Nigerians before the end of the year.
Finding an easier way for exporters to convey their goods to other countries for sale, according to Emefiele, will help the government to receive export revenues.
He said, “We have Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigeria Customs Service here, and I want to appeal to you that you establish a working group comprising the Bankers Committee, Customs, shipping lines, to resolve two issues; one is immediate. We have read about people who want to export goods out of Nigeria queuing for months or more before their goods can go out because time is against us.
“In the short run, what can NPA and Customs do for the exporters?
“Whether you want to create some sort of dedicated route where they can easily export their goods in the short run, we need those export proceeds badly,” said Emefiele.
He stated that finding an easier method for manufacturers to export their goods was a problem that needed to be solved because Nigerian exporters preferred road freight.
“I even hear some buy badges from Lagos to Accra or to Republic of Benin to export from there; doing this, we lose the opportunity of that export proceeds. In this working group, Customs, NPA, we will look at the short run and we will look at the long run; we will look at how we will immediately create a dedicated export route for exporters so that their goods can leave,” he said.