Nigeria‘s non-oil export has come under serious threat as exporters are finding it extremely difficult to export agro-commodities following the delay in obtaining the Nigerian Export Proceeds (NXP) numbers – a new procedure introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
As a result, agro commodities worth billions of naira are languishing in warehouses at a time the country desires needed foreign exchange.
The new clearing procedure is causing a major setback to the country’s diversification and export drive initiative as it increases the turnaround time of export trade, leading to losses especially in export of perishable agro commodities.
Tola Faseru, vice president, African Cashew Alliance, who describes the compulsory Export Proceeds (NXP) number as the greatest problem exporters are facing now after foreign exchange issue, says the policy has grounded the country’s export businesses.
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According to Faseru, it has also increased the congestion at Lagos ports as export containers are being delayed for long because it now takes months to get approval since the CBN is the one giving approval.
“The business turnaround time for exporters has increased because of this policy. Many ships are coming in but are going empty because of this policy. This is going to affect the image of the maritime industry and the economy at large. When shipments and exports are not going out, how can we earn foreign exchange,” Faseru asks in an interview with Businessday.
Citing an example, he says, his company has about 60 export containers that have been hanging for two months in the port because the CBN is sluggish in granting the Export Proceed Number.
“When one’s goods have gone through all the clearance stages; the person now has to wait to get NXP approval from the CBN. There are backlogs of containers of up to 1,000 at the ports that are waiting to get that approval and the process of approval from CBN is slow. Most of the agro products are perishable commodities and after the delay the goods will still spend another month on the sea, depending on the designation. In case of perishable items, such goods may arrive at the destination already bad,” he explains.
Confirming this, Victor Iyama, president, Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN), describes the new export procedure as a very obnoxious policy that will only kill export business further.
