Godwin Emiefele, Governor of the Centrall Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says that henceforth, shipping companies exporting undocumented cargoes from the country will face even stiffer sanctions.
Emiefele despatched the message in an address at the RT200 Non-Oil Export Summit 2023 on Tuesday in Abuja.
He averred that for meaningful development, a nation must strategically harness and deploy its export sector. This is particularly so, in the case of Nigeria, which needs to develop its non-oil export sector which has vast potential for generating foreign exchange earnings, he said.
Emefiele said it had become habitual for some exporters to ignore the CBN’s repeated warnings to properly document their cargoes for export.
“We keep hearing people trying to sidetrack the process and all I can do now is appeal to those of us who believe we can do business without proper documentation to try as much as possible to desist from this practice,” he said.
“We will continue to engage Customs, we will continue to engage Nigeria Ports Authority and we will continue to engage the shipping lines or shipping agents to nip in the bud the incidence of exporting without due documentation.”
He said this underhand practice undermines the export earning capacity of the country.
On the bright side, Emefiele said earnings from non-oil exports increased by 40 percent from $3 billion in 2021 to $5.6 billion at the end of 2022.
Regarding repatriation as a means of bolstering foreign reserves and a healthy balance of payments position, he said as at the first quarter of 2023, a total of US$1.7 billion was repatriated to the economy, while about $790 million was sold at the I&E window year-to-date.
