Reps Summons CBN Over Import, Export Operations

The House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to inform its Customs and Excise Committee about the new guidelines on import and export businesses in the country.

The resolution followed the unanimous adoption of a motion by Leke Abejide (ADC-Kogi) in plenary on Thursday.

Introducing the motion, Mr Abijide said there was a need to ensure that the target revenue of N3.1 trillion given to the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, by the Federal Government would be achieved.

“The NCS has announced to the media that its target of N4.2 trillion will not be distorted by this sudden change in policy,” he said.

Abejide said that on January 21, the CBN issued a circular on import and export guidelines that would take effect from February.

He said that sudden changes in government policies often lead to abrupt changes in policies.

“For a policy change like this, a 90-day grace period is generally expected for transactions to run their full course to avoid distortions in the economy,” he said.

Abejide said that the CBN has strayed from its main monetary policy function by concentrating on fiscal policy measures, which was the function of the Ministry of Finance.

“If the guidelines are not given adequate time to sensitize and familiarize the main ports of entry into the country for stakeholders and the general public to study the policy, prices of goods and services will be distorted.

“However, it will create bottlenecks for imports and exports, delay transactions and consequently cause port congestion.

“Remember in 2020, the immediate implementation of FORM NXP as a mandatory legal document to be completed by all exporters for shipping goods out of the country, but it resulted in a crisis.

“Most of the exporters’ contracts were cancelled by their foreign buyers due to network issues and their portal setup, which takes more than three weeks to resolve, leading to massive financial losses for exporters,” it said.

Mr Abejide expressed concern that importers and exporters in the manufacturing, mining, and trade sectors will be affected.

“I am concerned that some topics in the guidelines are contradictory, for example, guidelines (c) and (d) contradict each other.

“Guideline (c) establishes that no importer/exporter can make credit payments from any foreign supplier unless the electronic invoice has been authenticated by Authorized Distributor Banks and presented together with the relevant documents for payment, but guideline (d) states that the content of the electronic invoice authenticated by authorized dealer banks is only a recommendation to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS),” he said.

The chamber urged the CBN to suspend the policy with immediate effect to allow adequate awareness of the viability of the policy at all major ports of entry, including seaports, airports and border stations.

The lawmakers also said that the CBN should allow 90 days for the subsequent implementation of a new fiscal/monetary policy to allow adjustment to stabilize the economy.