There are strong indications that Nigeria’s efforts to claw back some of the foreign-exchange earnings lost to falling oil prices are causing delays in exports ranging from cocoa beans to cashew nuts, and adding to a problem the central bank sought to address in the first place.
Nigeria is the world’s fifth-biggest producer of cocoa beans, a key ingredient in chocolate. As Africa’s largest economy, it also fell into a recession last quarter.
A Bloomberg report Friday quoted Pius Ayodele, president of Cocoa Exporters Association of Nigeria, as saying that about 100,000 tons of cocoa beans are trapped at the ports and another 100,000 tonnes of a variety of agricultural commodities are in warehouses around the country.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele
The new policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directing all exporters to present the Nigeria Export Proceed (NXP) number before exporting any good outside the country is currently causing a setback for international trade.
Already, the exporters of perishable items groan under the cumbersome process of acquiring the NXP number while their goods lie fallow at the ports. Those affected are afraid the goods could lose quality.
An importer and Secretary-General, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, Sotonye Anga, told The Guardian that the agricultural goods were about to perish at the terminal while they had waited endlessly for NXP number.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele
The new policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directing all exporters to present the Nigeria Export Proceed (NXP) number before exporting any good outside the country is currently causing a setback for international trade.
Already, the exporters of perishable items groan under the cumbersome process of acquiring the NXP number while their goods lie fallow at the ports. Those affected are afraid the goods could lose quality.
An importer and Secretary-General, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, Sotonye Anga, told The Guardian that the agricultural goods were about to perish at the terminal while they had waited endlessly for NXP number.
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