The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has advocated for the federal government to convert one of the terminals at the nation’s seaport for exportation of Nigerian products ,saying it would boost seamless shipping of such commodities and would further reduce the bottlenecks associated to trade facilitation.
The council also called on the federal government to focus its attention on exportation for the sustenance of the country’s economy.
Apparently determined to boost exportation, the council further advocated for the federal government to establish “Export Strategy Committee ” that will facilitate easy processing of export goods out of Nigeria.
The port economic regulator which believes that rate of cargo coming into the port will trickle, added that export can generate income for the government if proper attention is given to the sector.
In a chat with some journalists on Tuesday, the Execurive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Barrister Hassan Bello said there was urgent need for the government to focus its attention on export as the fortune of oil is fast dwindling..
Bello maintained that access to the nation’s seaports have been a major problem to trade facilitation but with a designated terminal for exportation would encourage shippers to expedite actions in boost export effectively and efficiently.
He further harped on infrastructural development the port communities, the council’s boss maintained the “Export Strategy Committee ” would include the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Navy,Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Promotion Export Council , Nigerian Shippers Council and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Barrister Bello maintained that there was no other time to develop export then the present time as well as to simplify the process for easy exportation of goods outside the country.
He said for every goods exported must pass through a value chain of logistics which must have created job opportunities for Nigerians.
“Export is going to be our main line now because there is a lot of disruptions in the international supply chain on import. Even China will not export what it used to export, they will like to keep it for domestic use.
“Now is the time to look inwards and inward is not as in diversification but deliberate attempt to look at where we have comparative advantage and that is exportation.
“We can’t import now and even if we import, the throughput will dwindle.
“We have lost revenue in oil and due to the vulnerability of oil, we have to look at exportation. Nigeria is vast and so rich we would have been a substitute for China for raw materials which we are going to process. That is why we are calling on the government to focus on export.
“There were about 800 trucks outside some terminals but Shippers’ Council has brokered with the terminals and now these trucks are going in.
“We want these exports to be evacuated because some of these exports are perishable and we cannot afford to have them on the roads and non oil export is very import for our economy.
“Export is very important. For non oil revenue in 2019, Nigeria got N2.5 trillion, in 2016, it was N344 billion, 2017, N629 billion, in 2018, we got N1.1 trillion. You can see it is rising. Then why can’t we build in this?
“There is no other time to develop our export than now ,so we have reset this struggling and crawling economy and look beyond the oil ” he stated.
Speaking further, he said that the Council was poised to eliminate factors militating against export especially the rail capacity, the roads, processes and other means.
By Roland Ekama
