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SPOTLIGHTS
- Inspections of ports and border crossings underway
- Aim is to identify and resolve trade bottlenecks
- Collaboration between FMITI and the World Bank
- Focus on improving trade facilitation and attracting investment
From Sola Ojo, Abuja
As part of efforts to improve trade facilitation and simplify trading processes in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment (FMITI), in collaboration with the World Bank Nigeria Team, inspected critical facilities on Monday. These included the Nigerian Shippers Council, the Nigeria Customs Service, Apapa Port, and the land border at Mfum, Cross River State.
Representing the FMITI Minister, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, during the visit, Dr Brenda Max-Nduagwuibe stated that the present administration of President Bola Tinubu, through the eNTFC, has been working tirelessly to ensure simplified trading processes in the country.
According to Dr Max-Nduagwuibe, the visit to the port was to enable the ministry and the World Bank team to fully understand the daily operations, inspection processes, and trade bottlenecks, and to identify policy options to make trade seamless for the Nigerian government and others.
She further explained that the objective of the visit was to interact and engage with relevant government agencies present at the port and border control posts to better understand their operations and day-to-day activities.
The visit specifically involved discussions with: Border personnel (customs, security, and inspection agencies); Small businesses located around the border; Freight forwarders and trade/transport auxiliaries; Shipping lines; Other relevant stakeholders
“This is in furtherance of the efforts of the Ministry to work tirelessly towards a renewed hope for Nigerians who want to see their products in foreign markets and the country’s foreign partners who want to invest in Nigeria, the largest market in Africa,” she said.
World Bank representative, Aleksandar Stojanor, remarked that his team was there to find out how the agencies operate, the various challenges they face, and how to collaborate on trade facilitation.
He said the World Bank has a state-level operation with an interstate trade-related disbursement link indicator, which improves interstate trade and the seamless movement of goods across states in Nigeria, promoting export at the state level.
“There was an operation in the pipeline that will support trade facilitation, which has a linked indicator that focuses on reducing inspections at the border and improving trade facilitation through an authorised economic operator system with the customs service,” he said.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr Pius Ukeyima Akutah, said the council was one of the major stakeholders in trade facilitation in the country and has embarked on the promotion of trade facilitation tools such as: Border Information Centres (BICs); Inland dry ports; Vehicle Areas Transit across the country
“These are meant not only to facilitate trade but to also bring shipping activities to the hinterlands and decongest the seaports, especially Apapa and Tincan,” he said.
The World Bank team will continue its inspection tour on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at the Nigeria-Cameroon border in Mfum, Cross River State, according to Adebayo Thomas, Director of Press and Public Relations.
