Nigeria is set to drastically reduce exporters’ losses by 30 percent through a new initiative called Domestic Export Warehouse (DEW) system. This aims to drastically cut downptime from agriculture produce zones to the ports for export by completing export processes at the domestic export warehouses for fast trucking in sealed containers to the port of export.
The scheme would involve setting up strategic warehouses in at least 12 locations across Nigeria where all agencies involved in export processing would attend to the produce and seal it for export, only for trucks to take over and run swiftly to the port of exit. No government agency would dare touch the export-ready cargo.
At the port, the truck would not wait a minute because it would have been captured digitally and cleared ahead.
The Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), which developed the initiative, says it is going round Nigeria to train exporters and relevant groups on how to operate DEW. The essence is to make Nigeria more competitive in terms of export.
The International Trade Centre has said most countries including Nigeria suffer about 35 percent loss in value of export produce caused by logistics alone, that is, delays in transporting goods to the ports from the hinterlands and other locations where the agric produce are available. BusinessDay gathered that DEW would reduce the loss to about 5 percent.
Olusegun Awolowo, executive director/CEO of NEPC, said the domestic export warehouse is sequel to the One-State-One-Product (OSOP) scheme of the Federal Government, which tries to give each state a crop of best comparative advantage for export, and support such state.
Awolowo, who was represented by Afolabi Bello, an assistant director, at a one-day stakeholders’ session on DEW in Port Harcourt, said most times, the goods perish on the way from far-flung locations such as Kano and Kastina with more delays at the ports due to protocol.
Now, he said the trucks would be exempted from any stop or search not even at the ports as the containers would just walk into waiting vessels.
Nigerians would stop suffering rejection of their exports or reduction of prices by their foreign partners who are angry with constant failure of Nigerian suppliers meeting targets.
Nigerian exports would now meet international timelines and be competitive amid an urgent need to diversify the economy.
“The NEPC has been at the fore-front of implementing the Federal Government’s economic diversification programme. This necessitated development of a bold economic renaissance strategy, the Zero-Oil Plan, aimed at diversifying Nigeria’s economy,” Awolowo said.
He said one of the key components to drive this initiative is the OSOP programme, which emphasises massive production and steady supply base for exportable agricultural products across the 36 states and FCT.
“Nigeria has been unable to convert its enormous comparative advantage in production of many agricultural primary produce to competitive advantage in the global market place as a result of supply chain constraints. The supply chain challenges (storage, logistics, documentation, etc.) are very important in ensuring timely delivering of exportable products to buyers and importers, and also a critical factor in complying with export orders.
“The ability to resolve these challenges will go a long way in addressing supply chain gaps in the export value chain, and substantially increase non-oil export volume/value by between 25-30 percent as projected by the International Trade Centre (ITC),” he said.
Awolowo said the NEPC’s quest to mitigate export-related supply chain constraints necessitated the proposal for the setting up of Domestic Export Warehouse (DEW), which is expected to reduce the cost of doing business for MSME exporting companies, and also be a one-stop transit facility/terminal, for pre-shipment activities like packaging/labelling, aggregation, fumigation, pre-shipment inspection, etc of export designated agricultural produce in preparation for ultimate transportation to the ports prior to eventual shipment to export destinations.
“This initiative is also aligned to the Federal Government’s Ease-of-Doing-Business programme,” he said.
The NEPC boss stated that the DEW concept, when functional, would contribute to stimulation of export-related economic activities and other advantages such as a streamlined export procedure for agricultural produce; reliable and available data on agricultural export (volume and value) which will form the fulcrum for economic development; increased global market share for Nigerian exportable agricultural produce due to increased competitiveness, among others.
Awolowo said the initiative would also attract investors and investment into the non-oil exports sector, stimulate increased ancillary services related to non-oil export (logistics, documentation, analysis, etc.), and provide a platform for interface between export-related agencies and the export practitioners.
He said operationalisation of the DEW concept is envisaged to be a game-changer in the non-oil supply chain and would also promote operational/managerial effectiveness leading to export sustainability.
Joe Itah, South-South zonal coordinator of NEPC, told newsmen that Port Harcourt was chosen as centre to train exporters and prospective exporters because of the spike in export interest and nearness to some seaports of interest.
