Rand Merchant Bank has promised that it would continue to partner and support Nigeria’s government towards ensuring that the country becomes a hub for trade in the continent.
The Co-Head, Banking Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria, Taiwo Shote, said this as part of his contribution on a recent panel with the theme, “Implementing a 21st-century trade economy: The challenge of transforming Nigeria into Africa’s business hub.” The panel was part of the GTR Trade conference, one of the world’s leading trade finance events.
“As a bank, we intend to find ways to continuously partner and support the government in Nigeria becoming a hub for African trade,” Shote explained.
Trade facilitation has been highlighted as a key objective in the country’s mission to boost economic growth.
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To support this, Nigeria’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment had announced a group of policies aimed at promoting the nation as an African trade and investment hub, ranging from the enhancement of logistics corridors for perishable goods to the simplification, modernisation and harmonisation of trade documents and procedures.
This is in addition to the support the Central Bank of Nigeria is providing through its various policies and incentives to drive non-oil exports in Nigeria with the intervention funds and recently the RT200 program which the CBN is aiming to drive exports to $200 billion in the next three to five years.
“We have embraced the policies that have been implemented to drive economic development and have the expertise and resources to support the government from a private sector perspective,” he added.
