The Federal Government is to commence the implementation of the 2017 Revised Import and Export Guidelines on January 1, 2018, as part of its policy of enhancing the ease of doing business in the country.
Henceforth it will mandatory for both imports and exports to be palletinised in containers as done globally.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said this at a sensitisation workshop on the 2017 Revised Import and Export Guidelines in Lagos on Thursday.
She explained that the date was fixed after due consultations with relevant stakeholders and assured that imports already prepared for shipment into the country were not affected.
The minister, who was represented by the Director, Home Finance Department in the ministry, Mrs. Olubunmi Siyanbola, said that the Federal Government had considered all concerns expressed by the trading public regarding the palletisation policy.
Adeosun said, “After due consultations with the relevant key stakeholder MDAs, the effective date for full implementation of the guidelines was agreed upon, taking into account the need to give allowance for imports already prepared for shipment into Nigeria. In this note, I wish to announce that the Export and Import Guidelines will be fully implemented with effect from 1/1/2018.
“However, goods already loaded for shipment to Nigeria prior to this date will not be affected by the palletisation policy.’’
The workshop was organised by the finance ministry in collaboration with the technical committees of the Nigeria Export Supervision Scheme and the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme.
Adeosun explained that the review of the Nigerian Export and Import Guidelines was motivated by the desire of the present administration to deepen ease of doing business in Nigeria, in line with the Executive Order 1.
According to her, attention has been focused principally on measures to ensure drastic reduction in time spent on processing of exports, ensure 24 hours clearance of imported cargoes and block leakages of revenue accruable to the government.
In a statement issued by the ministry, Adeosun recalled that Nigeria had moved to the 145th position out of the 190 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index for 2018.
She said the government had adopted a number of measures to improve trading across the country’s border.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, noted that until the recent review, the Export and Import Guidelines had become obsolete and had constituted a huge administrative impediment to smooth export and import operations in Nigeria.
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