Exporters complained of various factors that were proving to be an obstacle in export such as smuggling, exchange rate disparity, port delays and multiple levies.
Other factors impeding exports according to the exporters are EEG processing and NDCI, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and VAT.
Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, NEPC CEO, Mrs. Modupe Sasore and Mrs. Esther Oyero, Special Assistant to the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federal Government met exporters who informed them about smuggling of agricultural commodities, wet blue (skin) which is a banned item.
They wanted Government to ask Customs to enforce orders and address the ex-rate disparity between the parallel and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rate.
The widening gap between the official export proceeds rate and the parallel exchange rate was a big disadvantage for exporters.
Okonjo-Iweala, Sasore and Oyero were informed of the average waiting time between container stuffing to shipment which has increased from one week to three weeks and requested to solve congestion of ports by streamlining import procedures.
The exporters said that export taxes represent a significant 2 percent to 5 percent of value of export and recommended that a flat amount of N5,000 per container or N10,000 per NXP be charged instead of 1 percent NESS.
marketing@alchempro.com
