Okonjo iweala speaks out- non-oil exporters demand payment of n125bn- ndcc claims

As a new administration led by Muhammadu Buhari takes charge of Nigeria’s affairs, operators in the non- oil sector have demanded the payment of N175bn worth of Negotiable Duty Credit Certificates issued to them by the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan in the Export Expansion Grant scheme. They urged the new administration to honour the certificates and pay them. They had in a series of letters addressed to the Federal Government and the former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, lamented the failure of the Jonathan administration to fully implement the policy. The EEG scheme was introduced by the Jonathan administration. The scheme has export subsidies of 40 per cent, depending on the value of the local content. It was designed to promote and grow the country’s exports, especially in the non-oil sector. But the EEG was suspended on August 22, 2013, when the Nigeria Customs Service stopped recognising the NDCCs used by exporters. Since the suspension of the scheme, there have been several calls in various quarters urging the government to lift the embargo. In September, a month after the suspension, stakeholders in the export business claimed they lost more than N690m. In May, exporters in the agro-allied sector addressed a letter to former President Goodluck Jonathan, regretting the suspension of the scheme. In the letter written by the operators under the auspices of the Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria, the exporters alleged that the government reneged on the agreement to implement the EEG policy framework for 2014 as announced by the Ministry of Finance. The letter was signed by the National President of FACAN, Mr. Victor Iyama. The exporters observed that the lukewarm attitude of the government towards boosting the non-oil sector had continued to negatively affect the growth of the sector, which formed the bulk of the non-oil exports and contributed over 80 per cent of the nation’s non- oil export earnings. The agro-allied exporters regretted that while the government regularly paid fuel subsidy to oil marketers with interests and exchange rate adjustments, it refused to allow the utilisation of the NDCCs, which had been signed by the Federal Ministry of Finance and disbursed to the exporters as a ‘legal tender’. The organisation disclosed that two recommendations of the EEG Implementation Committee Meeting had been awaiting the approval of the Ministry of Finance since 2014, adding that the documents were about the approved EEG claims of various exporters up to 2013. The exporters said they were facing hard times due to the delay in disbursement of the NDCCs and the EEG claims being processed by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council. Iyama said, “Exporters have the NDDC of over N125bn in their hands. They have been stuck with it for several years now. Many exporters are now wondering if they have been handed a ‘dud cheque’ by the Ministry of Finance. “We are yet to come to terms with the fact that we have been handed a ‘dud-cheque’ by the government which is against the fiscal policies and financial guidelines.” As part of his recommendations to the new administration, the President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Frank Jacobs, called on the new administration to honour all outstanding obligations to the EEG. Jacobs noted that this would rekindle the hope for export-oriented industrialisation and comprehensively review the EEG in a way that would further promote exports. He said, “The NDCC certificates should be used to settle other financial obligations like the payment of corporate tax.” The Chairman, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, Mr. Babatola Faseru, told our correspondent in an interview that the NDCC documents are like promissory notes. He said, “They are like cheques issued by the government. If the government says people should not issue dud cheques, then they should honour the certificates.” According to him, the EEG should be revived and the backlog paid and if there are reported cases of fraud, the government should investigate and genuine beneficiaries fully paid. The Chief Executive Officer, NEPC, Mr. Segun Awolowo, told our correspondent that the government had found the EEG scheme unsustainable, hence the suspension. He added, however, that the claims were being looked into with a view to restructuring a payment system for the beneficiaries.