The Area Controller, Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Comptroller Benjamin Aber, has urged Nigerians to be more serious with exportation of goods to replenish the country’s dwindling foreign reserves.
He made the plea at a meeting on the Nigerian Export Trade Hub (NETH) hosted by the Customs command.
He suggested that Nigeria needed to be focused on exportation in order to get out of the current economic recession
Aber had in the last eight months been organizing several meetings geared toward reviving the Kirikiri Terminal.
He said that agriculture could sustain Nigeria if vigorously pursued.
“It is time Nigeria moves forward in its export business. We need to move Nigeria forward away from reliance on oil. Agriculture can sustain this country.
“The Nigeria Customs Service is now in the forefront that export business should be done in such a way that it earns foreign exchange for the country,” he said.
Aber said that all Federal regulatory agencies would be linked to the NETH, adding that doing business through the hub would be easy.
NETH was launched on August 2016 by some government agencies and private sector stakeholders including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), National Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC); and the National Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA). It is aimed not only to earn foreign exchange for the country but to also create a trade balance.
According to the Coordinator of the trade hub, Assistant Superintendent of Customs, Frank Ezeh, NETH gives investors the opportunity to bring in their goods and have easy access to exporting them out of the country.
“This is to also guide against the ban or blacklisting of Nigerian exports to Europe and the world over.
“With this, the country’s balance of trade will be improved upon,” Ezeh said.
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