The Executive Director/Chief Executive of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Olusegun Awolowo has revealed that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is withholding 10 percent levies on freights collection to NEPC as stipulated by law.
In his presentation at the just concluded 22nd seminar of Finance Correspondents and Business Editors (FICAN) in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, NEPC further said the inability of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to release 10 percent levies on freights collections to NEPC as stipulated by law, was one of its major handicaps to providing export incentives to proposed beneficiaries.
The conference was bankrolled by the apex bank.
He was represented by a Director in NEPC, Barr. George Enyiekpon, who disclosed that currently, the country’s non-oil export products have remained at non-processed levels and this has had limitations on the standards, quality and accruals from the sector.
Speaking on the title:”Towards Efficient Institutional Arrangements for Non-oil Export Finance in Nigeria”, Awolowo argued that the non-oil sector holds enormous foreign exchange potentials for the country but had not been fully exploited despite being endowed with solid minerals and agriculture.
He blamed the decline in non-oil export earnings on limited local content value addition, products mostly exported in the primary forms and challenges associated with poor infrastructure, power, standards, finance, skills and capacity.
