Importers to pay N1,500 for e-Form ‘M’

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has mandated all Authorised Dealer Banks (ADBs) to charge N1,500 per declaration of electronic Form ‘’M’ (e-Form ‘M’) which replaced the manual Form M late last year.
The apex bank said the fee was necessary following the successful deployment of the e-Form ‘M’ on the Nigerian Single Window Trade portal and the commencement of online submission of the Form ‘M’.
In a circular sent to all authorized dealers, importers/traders and the general public, the CBN Director, Trade and Exchange, W.D Gotring, stated that the N1,500 fee per declaration for e-Form ‘M’ took effect last December.
He said there should be a direct debit of the processing bank’s current account for each declaration, which should be recovered from the customer of the bank.

“However, the charge on the customer for the e-Form ‘M’ should be separated from other bank charges”, Gotring stated in the circular dated 21st March, 2013.
CBN also announced the commencement of self-submission of the e-Form ‘M’ on the Nigeria Single Window for Trade Portal by importers and traders using foreign exchange.
Gotring said the self-submission was necessary after the banking watchdog successfully deployed the trade portal.
He said the e-Form ‘M’ is web-based and allows the importers and traders to initiate the Form from their offices/homes and submit same to the authorised dealer.

He advised all Nigerian importers and traders to begin self-submission of the e-Form ‘M’ on the trade portal in line with the design and objective of the scheme.
Gotring also advised all authorized dealer banks to educate their customers on the new development to ensure compliance.
The Form M is a prerequisite for all shipments coming into Nigeria.
The e-Form ‘M’ is completed by importers while biddng for foreign exchange for importation of goods. Before now, Form ‘M’ was manual and this caused delays in handling forex transactions.