Awolowo decries neglect of ECOWAS free trade

The Executive Director of Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, has urged Nigerian exporters to maximise the economic potentials inherent in ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) to enhance economic growth in the country.

Awolowo, who expressed concern over the dwindling revenue accruing from oil, decried the low impact of Nigerian business class in ECOWAS liberalised trade and African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The NEPC boss, who spoke yesterday at a capacity building workshop for exporters in Kano, revealed that survey conducted by the council on progress on some multilateral and bilateral trade agreements entered with some countries indicated poor impact, largely due to what he considered as lack of awareness of most of the pacts.

But president of Trans Sahara Trade Development Association, Alhaji Muntaka Isa, said low participation of Nigerian businessmen, particularly in the northern part of the country, was not unconnected with cumbersome procedure and heavy taxes and duties imposed by Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).

ECOWAS member countries introduced ETLS to enjoy free movement and transport of goods and removal tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade.Represented by the northern regional coordinator, Alhaji Abdullahi Kudu Mohammed, Awolowo said ETLS, when fully embraced, would elicit economic growth, create employment opportunities and lower cost of manufacturing export goods.

Mindful of some of the challenges in documentation and other requirement of ETLS, he noted that the council was organising a nationwide sensitisation to educate exporters and potential exporters on the workability of the process.

Isa posited that Nigerian exporters still find it difficult to explore the free trade, 15 years after its enforcement due to charges and technicalities hardly known to many.He advocated simplified process and aggressive enlightenment campaign, particularly in the north, to attract interest of business of potential exporters.