Stakeholders lament complex export levy, documentation

.Nigeria to implement single window by end of 2023, says Awolowo

Stakeholders have lamented what they described as extremely complex export procedures and documentation processes by numerous government agencies in Lagos State.
This is even as they urged the Federal Government to scrap export levy collections on agricultural products and collection of registration charges on Domestic Export Warehouses (DEWs).

The former Chairman of the Export Group of the Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Kola Awe, said there is an imposition of export levy of $5 for five different cargoes, including Cocoa, Ginger, Cotton and Rubber, while every other one is $15.

Awe also noted that exporters are avoiding taking their goods to the established government export warehouses because of the export levies.

He said the cost of registering at the export warehouses is expensive while calling on the government to make it lower so that exporters can be encouraged to use it.

Awe, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of XPT Logistics, called for the harmonisation of all agencies to have a seamless transaction, which he said has become an issue.
“Our ports are not yet paperless. When it comes to the examination side, the same number of agencies are there. It impedes the whole essence of global best practices and competitiveness, the processes are extremely too much,” he stated.

“Why are exporters running from the export warehouses? It is because of the export levy, that the Federal Government should scrap export levies and register more warehouses. The Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on export says that all exports must originate from export warehouses, but today, 80 per cent of exports do not originate from these warehouses,” he noted.

Awe further highlighted the need for the government to deploy technology into the port process.
“Deploying technology in Nigeria is war, there are shipping lines today that you cannot go inside, they would tell you to go and send it by mail, yet the container is there, accruing demurrage because it takes them days to respond to the mail.
“We have one problem currently where the exporter pays $ 200 per day, the problem is not from the exporter but from the shipping line,” he stated.

The Executive Secretary of the National Action Committee, Africa Continent Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Olusegun Awolowo, said Nigeria must digitise and automate, while embracing digital solutions to streamline trade document processes.
He said the country must implement a single window platform for trade documentation that will reduce time and cost for cross-border trade.

“The single window platform is particularly sad for me. Nigeria was at one point made the chairman of the single window platform at the United Nations Trade Organisation and it was frustrating that Nigeria has not started implementing the single window platform. Ghana and Senegal have started implementation.

We came back home and pushed for the government to make this happen. We made some little progress, they are now working on it and I think before the end of the year, customs would have done that for us and that would enable trade documentation, reduce time and customs assisted with cross-border trade,” Awolowo said.
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