By Samuel Oyejola
Nigeria is in a dire need of economic salvation, can this oil rich country leverage on the 2015 loss on its non-oil export in years to come? Samuel Oyejola writes.
Revoking diplomatic sanction on Iran’s foreign trade after agreement was reached for the oil rich gulf state to allow world powers to curb its nuclear programmes had put that country on a mission to accelerate its share on the crude oil proceeds in the international market.
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said in August that current crisis in crude oil international market poses no threat to the country even if the price sinks further. “If the oil prices drop to $25 a barrel, there will yet again be no threat posed to Iran’s oil industry,” he had said.
Why is this of interest to Nigeria? Nigeria was a beneficiary of Iran’s misfortune. Back home, the economy was heated and already at risk as crude oil price continued to sink on the graph. Realizing that the economy would crash if drastic steps are not taken, President Buhari told manufacturers in the country that the economy would be run with little focus on revenue coming from oil.
“We are in difficult times economically, but we’ll continue to do our best for manufacturing to pick up. We must begin to behave as if we have no oil at all,’’ he had intoned.
Previous government work along this line by encouraging agriculture and other industries yet crude oil and gas continue to contribute over 70% of export earnings up to the first quarter of the this year.
However danger looms for non-export commodities as Nigeria may lose over N200 billion within the next 10 months. In Africa, Nigeria has the highest case of non-oil export rejections ahead of Egypt, Senegal and Ghana. How could this be for a country in dire need of maximum export proceeds from non-oil to cushion the draining oil proceeds? This simply indicates that export related agencies in the country are negligible in adherence to food safety measures. It also establishes the insinuations in some quarters that some agencies compromise in exporting procedures.
As if that is not enough, the European Union placed ban on beans coming from Nigeria after more than 50 rejections recorded since 2013 making it more than 70% of dried beans coming from Nigeria. Why Nigeria is losing grip of its export opportunities at this dire moment when crude oil proceeds is not encouraging.
The Executive Director of Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Segun Awolowo, also established that poor packaging, labelling, insufficient information on nutritional content and prevalence of informal exports furthermore impelled the rejections.
Dr. Paul Orhii of National Agency for Food, Drugs, Administration and Control was quick to blame exporters for rejections. To justify his administration that has also come under scrutiny, Orhii’s excuse was that they failed to comply with regulatory requirements for semi-processed and processed commodities.
On the surface it sounds genuine, considering the sharp practices that exporters engaged in to get their exports certified.
The Director of Collection and Trade at the Nigeria Agriculture Quarantine Service, Nnamdi Onukwuba told Time Nigeria that “exporters are quick to go to any sister agency to get a document. All these rejections never went through quarantine. Those who may have quarantine documents are the ones who went outside to fake phytosanitory certificate. You can go to a sister agency and get a document and you go out. The only authorized document for agricultural produce is phytosanitory certificate for the crops.’’
But for Orhii this is laughable. How can an agency like NAFDAC that celebrated the conviction of “My Pikin” baby mixture suddenly turn to a toothless dog that would allow unregulated product pass through its vaults without proper sanction. One is left to wonder whether the huge billions of naira allegedly spent on publicity and public relations was to achieve rejection of exports.
The Nigeria Customs Service being the last agency in export process to ensure that exports are of legitimate document and approved for foreign trade also ensures that packing and labelling of all exports are properly done according to regulation.
However, even a shallow thinker could see far ahead that there are compromises in export procedures, standard and regulatory requirements. In the same vein, practices and the encouragement of informal export create avenue for opportunists less concerned about regulations but more interested in financial benefits from their exports.
The Assistant Comptroller General of Tariff and Trade Department of Customs, Adeyemo Grace, at a recent function assured that the Customs Service would continue to work to facilitate legitimate trade in accordance with the WTO and World Customs Organization legal framework that is “ensuring standards are met, documentary checks are put in place because we are the last agency that will conduct 100% examination before the container is closed.”
Should exporting be an all-comer’s affairs considering the dire situation of the country? There is need for government and its agencies to do the needful.
Onukwuba says: “Government has not given the quarantine service the latitude to do its work. Knowing our Nigerian exporters, anything can enter the container and they adulterate what you have already certified knowing that you do not have the final sealing right. Even if Quarantine certifies all these products to go, there can still be sharp practices at the exit point.
“If you are not at the exit point where products are passed, even if you certify everything at the ware houses on the way they can change and when you are not at the exit point anything can happen. All agencies should come open and lay their plans on the desk,” the NAQS Director said.
The time has come for agencies to put all their hands on deck and collaborate at the highest level. Export related agencies operators should not muddle the process. Authorities of these agencies know the mandates but their operatives are left off the hook to operate without paying attention to the thin line that separates one mandate from the other.
Nigerians need to know who certifies packaged products; who regulates wholesome and unpackaged agriculture produce; who ensures the all regulation both in package standards and trade regulations are adhered to. All these must be spelt out. The bottleneck in export processes and unhealthy rivalry amongst export related agencies of government is the genesis of the sharp practices amongst exporters.
While NAFDAC regulates processed and packaged agricultural products the Quarantine Services should focus on its mandate to ensure sanitary certificate for all wholesome agricultural produce. When necessary, mandates of these agencies should be revisited to ensure that it is abreast with current realities and practices in international trade.
“The right hand must know what the left hand is doing. Customs should know what they are supposed to do, NAFDAC should know what they are supposed to do, we know what we are supposed to do, we want to get that to the exporters, and we want to stream line it,’’ Awolowo had told journalists recently.
This was reinforced by Bruno Doko, an international expert on Technical Barrier to Trade. “This is the era of harmonization; harmonization of standards, harmonizations of energy, in order not to waste our energy, those working on standards are working on it, those working on business are all doing their work,’’ he said.
An inter-agency committee on non-oil exports set up by the Nigeria Export Promotion Council to ensure Zero-Reject Policy for Nigeria non-oil exports is achieved must work to ensure that there is a fostered collaboration by all export related agencies.
The interagency committee, Awolowo said, is expected to work out harmoniums ways for all the agencies to work together.
“ It is an implementing committee and a long term committee that is going to be sitting to work it out,” Awolowo added.
Like Doko, Awolowo is optimistic that the committee would break the jinx of rejection of Nigeria non-oil exports. No matter how optimistic they are, however, Nigerians wait to see how the country would leverage on this loss to better its non-oil export revenue loss in 2016.