NSC Partners ECOWAS, ITC to Facilitate Border Trade

The Executive Secretary, of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr Pius Akutah, said the council would collaborate with the International Trade Centre on a border trade transportation study to facilitate trade in the West and Central African region.

Akutah disclosed the International Trade Centre (ITC) visit to the Council Headquarters in Lagos on Friday.

He said that the study would further strengthen the council’s ability to get statistics for planning.

The executive secretary said the study would help Nigeria to export more agricultural produce and improve more on trade facilitation.

Akutah commended ITC for partnering with NSC on the study, noting that the partnership would focus more on stakeholders and challenges on exports within the region.

“In this current dispensation, where Mr President created the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, the focus is on how the non-oil sector in the export business can be developed.

“The focus is on trade, which will further strengthen the country’s ability and capacity.

“The study will enable them to get statistics of trade volume in Nigeria while the study would focus more on agricultural produce, Nigeria being an agricultural state.

“The study will help us to plan and develop more skills for export,” Akutah said.

He assured the management of the centre of the council’s support by making its staff available to assist in achieving quick results in the study.

Akutah said that Nigeria had counterparts in the Benin Republic and other parts of the West and Central African countries.

He hailed the partnership with ITC, particularly on sharing ideas and working together, adding that the Nigerian government had signed an agreement with the neighbouring countries to facilitate trade.

According to him, the shippers council is the first to establish the Trade Border Information Centre at Seme Border to facilitate inter-border trade.

The Associate Programme Officer, International Trade Center, Mr Timothee Bruneteau, said the study would provide solutions to facilitate trade around West and Central Africa.

Bruneteau said that the partnership with the Nigerian Shippers’ Council would provide good results that had been expected for many years.

“We are going to look at the existing solutions to make them achieve maximum utilisation in Nigeria.

“Seme border has the largest strategic corridor that access all the West Africa.

“The study will be conducting solutions and palliating records as well as discussion on reactions to what they had been able to do in Benin Republic,” Bruneteau said.

Assistant Programme Officer, ITC, Mr Richard Eke-Metoho, said ITC was implanting the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Agricultural Trade Programme study for improvement.

Eke-Metoho said the ITC Study would improve inter-border trade, especially in the countries under the programme.

“We are here to collect experience from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council; we have already visited the Border Information Centre established by the council.

“The council collects and manages information across border traders, particularly along border areas.

“We are here to get information on the mandate, especially as regards trade facilitation.

“We intend to find out from the council about facilitation measures to improve upon,” Eke-Metoho said.

He said that the committee would develop a report that would key in all the obstacles transporters were experiencing along the border areas and also provide recommendations.

Also, the Technical Advisor, of the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade Programme (EAT), Mr Kabir Hassan, said that the committee yet would look into all the challenges highlighted by the stakeholders regarding food insecurity and the cost of doing business within the region.

Hassan said the report of malnutrition at the ECOWAS region led to the development of the programme, adding that the study would propose solutions.

He said that it had become necessary to work on the already existing structure within the efforts of ECOWA as well as its member states.

Hassan said the study would also enable the committee to form decisions and advise the ECOWAS body on various solutions to implement and jointly address across the region.

The Managing Director, of XPT Logistic, Mr Kola Awe, a Freight Forwarder, said that some of the challenges confronting ECOWAS were documentation and exporting perishable items.

Awe said transporters encountered lots of obstacles within Nigerian roads and along the border areas.

Awe called for the establishment of more Truck Transit Parks along the Benin Republic and also in Nigeria.

The Managing Director, Peal and Real Dev., Princess Layo Bakare-Okeowo, urged NSC to assist in reducing the cost of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) to encourage more exporters along border trade.

The Managing Director, of OKLAN Best Logistics, Mrs Elizabeth Nwankwo, called for more harmonisation in port activities to encourage more women to engage in border trade.

Nwankwo advised the government to begin to focus on women traders along the border trade, by ensuring using of tickets to boost data collection.

She said that more non-educated women were attracted to border trade and making money without proper capturing of their activities.

“Government should establish cooling van to preserve perishable items for proper documentation.

“Government should create scanners at the border stations to reduce corruption among the officers,” Nwankwo said.

A member of West Africa Cross Border Trade, Mr Isiaka Gbadesere-Saibu, lamented on exploitation and unnecessary delay by some security agencies across the border, adding that the challenges usually damage perishable export goods.