The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) in partnership with stakeholders on export is working on the export promotion action plan EPAP.
The move comes as the council had put itself up for benchmarking by the International Trade Centre since August 2018.
Whilst the council scored well in a number of areas under the watch of International Trade Center, it is clear that there are still much to be improved upon, not least in terms of the strategic plan.
It is good to note that NEPC is undergoing a strategy refresh, which makes it important for the council to hear directly from stakeholders over the direction the council should move.
The Executive Director, CEO Nigeria Export Promotion Council, NEPC Olusegun Awolowo, who was represented by the Director Policy and Strategy, Abdulahi Sidi Aliyu, said participants are invited to discuss ways in which they feel both parties can form additional strategic partnership.
This is an opportunity for stakeholders to show how they feel and how collaboration can be enhanced and improved.
Awolowo stated this during the focus group meeting on non-oil export in Abuja, stating that it is time to discuss past NEPC intervention and how they can improve.
The council will also be expecting feedback from CBI programme, SIAL food fair, women in export events, gulfood expo and Nigeria UK Trade and investment diagnostic study. We know that these events resulted in a number of successes.
According to him, “The SIAL food led to a number of Memorandum of Understanding being signed as well as significant orders particularly for sesame seeds with an order for 19 containers being place.
The CBI programme helped to connect Nigerian exporters to the European market with a potential to expert over 21 million euro in the two years period after the culmination of the programme.
“Despite the success in the aforementioned interventions we know there was a lot we could have improved upon. Presently outsiders have noticed the huge opportunities that our continent possesses.
By 2025 the UN predicts that Africa will have a larger population that China.
Foreign engagement in our continent is reaching unprecedented levels. This brings both challenge and possibilities.”
Africa and its most populous nation, Nigeria are ready to enter into the world of international trade in a major way, and it is entrepreneurs such as you who will lead this charge to make the world a market place for Nigerian non-oil products
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has made the case for factoring as a viable and sustainable solution to address the challenge of access to financing which is hindering the growth of Africa’s small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).
Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the Intra-African Trade Initiative at Afreximbank, said on 12 March during a factoring promotion conference held in Gaborone that factoring, a form of trade finance provided a solution to address the SME financing gap and would help innovative SMEs to grow and support Africa’s structural transformation and trade development.
Ms. Awani, who noted that access to appropriate and affordable finance had been frequently cited as a major obstacle for SMEs, explained that factoring was an important alternative to other trade financing sources, such as bank loans.
Despite its huge opportunities, however, factoring had not yet taken off fully in Africa, with the region accounting for less than 1 per cent of global factoring volumes in 2017, stated Ms. Awani.
Notwithstanding that, the region had demonstrated strong growth in recent years, with factoring volumes growing from Euro 14.9 billion in 2009 to approximately Euro 22.3 billion in 2017, although most of those volumes were concentrated in South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Mauritius and Kenya.
She said that Africa’s factoring volumes were projected to reach about Euro 200 billion by 2021, resulting mostly from new market entrants supported by the sustained economic growth; rapid rise of Africa’s middle class.
Also is emergence of innovative industries supported by technological advancements; rapidly expanding trade and economic relations between Africa and major economies in the South; and increasing focus on regional integration and intra-regional trade under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Afreximbank had been playing a leading role in facilitating the growth of factoring in Africa through various interventions, including supporting the creation of a facilitative legal and regulatory environment for factoring; provision of finance and guarantees to factoring companies; provision of technical assistance; and formation of strategic partnerships to promote the development of factoring.
The two-day Factoring Promotion Conference held under the theme “Domestic and International Factoring: Alternative tools for SME financing in Africa” on 12 and 13 March, was organized by Afreximbank and FCI, the global representative body for factoring and financing of open account domestic and international trade receivables.
It had over 180 attendees and provided practical information and ideas about how to set up factoring activities and highlighted the importance of factoring in the development and promotion of SME financing. Topics covered included benefits and risks of factoring, mechanics of factoring, and legal aspects of factoring.
It also provided networking opportunities for African factors, bankers, lawyers and others.
The speakers included Emma Peloetletse, Accountant General of Botswana, Elaina Gonsalves, Deputy Secretary for Financial Policy of Botswana, and Peter Mulroy, Secretary General of FCI.
Ms. Awani is also Chairperson of the Africa Chapter of FCI.
Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the Intra-African Trade Initiative
at Afreximbank, said on 12 March during a factoring promotion conference held in
Gaborone that factoring, a form of trade finance provided a solution to address
the SME financing gap and would help innovative SMEs to grow and support
Africa’s structural transformation and trade development.
Ms. Awani,
who noted that access to
appropriate and affordable finance had been frequently cited as a major
obstacle for SMEs, explained that factoring was an important alternative to
other trade financing sources, such as bank loans.
Despite its
huge opportunities, however, factoring had not yet taken off fully in Africa,
with the region accounting for less than 1 per cent of global factoring volumes
in 2017, stated Ms. Awani. Notwithstanding that, the region had demonstrated
strong growth in recent years, with factoring volumes growing from Euro 14.9
billion in 2009 to approximately Euro 22.3 billion in 2017, although most of
those volumes were concentrated in South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt,
Mauritius and Kenya.
She said
that Africa’s factoring volumes were projected to reach about Euro 200 billion
by 2021, resulting mostly from new market entrants supported by the sustained
economic growth; rapid rise of Africa’s middle class; emergence of innovative
industries supported by technological advancements; rapidly expanding trade and
economic relations between Africa and major economies in the South; and
increasing focus on regional integration and intra-regional trade under the African
Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Afreximbank
had been playing a leading role in facilitating the growth of factoring in
Africa through various interventions, including supporting the creation of a
facilitative legal and regulatory environment for factoring; provision of
finance and guarantees to factoring companies; provision of technical
assistance; and formation of strategic partnerships to promote the development
of factoring.
The two-day
Factoring Promotion Conference held under the theme “Domestic and International
Factoring: Alternative tools for SME financing in Africa” on 12 and 13 March,
was organized by Afreximbank and FCI, the global representative body for
factoring and financing of open account domestic and international trade
receivables.
It had over
180 attendees and provided practical information and ideas about how to set up
factoring activities and highlighted the importance of factoring in the
development and promotion of SME financing. Topics covered included benefits
and risks of factoring, mechanics of factoring, and legal aspects of factoring.
It also provided networking opportunities for African factors, bankers, lawyers
and others.
The
speakers included Emma Peloetletse, Accountant General of Botswana, Elaina
Gonsalves, Deputy Secretary for Financial Policy of Botswana, and Peter Mulroy,
Secretary General of FCI.
Ms. Awani
is also Chairperson of the Africa Chapter of FCI.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be operationalized in July, setting the stage to start implementing measures to promote the unhindered movement of goods and services across the continent.
The Director for Trade and Industry at the African Union (AU) Commission, Treasure Maphanga, said the integrated trade market would soon commence since the historic decision to sign an agreement to establish the AfCFTA in March 2018.
He said that a total of 52 African countries have signed the agreement, while 20 have ratified the agreement in their national assemblies.
Of these, 15 have already deposited instruments of ratification with the AU Commission.
“We are therefore on course for the AfCFTA to become operational by July this year and we are actively planning for this eventuality, expecting the largest free trade area of the world to be launched during the Extra-Ordinary AU summit in Niamey, Niger in July,” Maphanga told the delegates at a Trade Law Centre (Tralac) conference underway in Nairobi, Kenya.
The process of approval of a continental legal instrument requires, first, signing, and then ratification, a process that differs from country to country.
A protocol “enters into force” following ratification by at least 22 AU Member States. This advances the continental law from being a stated intention to actual application. Those member states that join after a protocol has entered into force are said to “accede” to the protocol.
To support and ensure the successful realisation of the continental free trade area, plans are now at an advanced stage to establish a Secretariat that will monitor and track implementation.
“The process has started for the establishment of the AfCFTA Secretariat, and an official report on progress will be submitted to the next meetings of the AU Policy Organs,” said Maphanga.
Once the free trade area becomes operational, the next stage is to launch a continental Common Market.
A Common Market is a higher level of integration where countries remove all trade barriers between themselves, establishing common tariff and non-tariff barriers for importers, and also allowing for the free movement of labour, capital and services between themselves.
“All of these steps demonstrate our resolve and intention to lay the groundwork for successful implementation of the AfCFTA,” Maphanga said, adding that “once this is established, we intend to focus on the establishment of an African Common Market, in line with the Abuja Treaty.”
“So the work does not stop. Even as we implement the AfCFTA, successive rounds of negotiation will continue, deepening the integration in Africa” she said stressing that cooperation between sovereigns is crucial to ensure the free trade area’s success.
In this regard, the continent should remain united and guard against external forces that do not want the AfCFTA to be a success.
The Committee of Experts of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development have applauded Ethiopia for the ratification of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Ethiopia got the commendation at the 38th meeting of committee during a plenary debate in which the AfCFTA was given prime focus.
News that Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representative had become the 21st legislative body to ratify the agreement on the AfCFTA .
The meeting was the 1st anniversary of the signing of the agreement by many African countries in Kigali – Rwanda (this occurred on 21 st March 2018).
The action of the Ethiopian parliament, now leaves room for just one more country to ratify the AfCFTA for it to become operational.
Coincidentally, the support ECA gave to the African Union and member states in formulating, negotiating for, and adhering to the agreement, was widely accepted as one of the Commission’s major achievements in the period under review.
After keenly following a report by ECA’s Executive Secretary on the activities of the Commission since its 51st session in Addis Ababa last year, representatives from several countries enjoined ECA to accompany their countries to fully appropriate the continental trade arrangement so as to benefit from it.
Mr. Stephen Karingi, Director of the Regional Integration and Trade Division and Ms. Eskedar Nega, Chief of Evaluation at ECA, assured the delegates that the Commission was already accompanying 15 countries in drawing up their AfCFTA strategies and that this support would be extended to other countries on a request basis.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has sent a mission to Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in the wake of exchange’s membership of the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP).
The project is an initiative to foster greater integration in securities trading across the continent.
The AELP project, jointly initiated by
the Bank and the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), has
the main objective of increasing intra-African investment flows through
linking African Stock Exchanges.
EGX joined the Project last month as one of seven stock exchanges that will be linked in AELP’s first phase.
In talks with the delegation, Mohamed
Farid Saleh, EGX Executive Chairman said requirements for the launch of
an electronic platform to link all brokerage firms in securities across
the African continent had been completed and
that procedures of trading and investment needed to be simplified.
Currently, he said, EGX was communicating
with brokerage firms about the initiative and on how to participate and
maximize their benefits and on how to create value chain for the
securities industry.
“Meeting with the Bank mission in Cairo
was crucial to speed up the process of preparing a comprehensive study
on key determinants of activating the initiative and starting the
discussions between stock exchanges and brokerage
firms,” Saleh said.
Saleh added, “The platform will increase
the amount of securities offered for investment and provide a variety of
investment options for all investors in African stock exchanges. This
project is consistent with EGX’s objective
to enhance the demand side by increasing number of investors along with
improving products to improve the trading environment”.
Emmanuel Diarra, Bank Manager for Capital
Markets Development Division said the integration of African financial
systems is an essential part of the Bank’s Regional Integration
Strategy.
The Bank supports the EGX and other
Exchanges by playing the role of a catalyst and providing the platform
for broader collaborative engagements among financial sector
stakeholders.
Together, the seven Stock Exchanges,
which include the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Nigerian Stock Exchange,
Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Stock Exchange of Mauritius, Casablanca
Stock Exchange, and Bourse Régionale des Valeurs
Mobilières (for the West African Economic and Monetary Union),
represent more than 90% of Africa’s stock markets capitalization.
The African Development Bank Country
Manager for Egypt, Malinne Blomberg, highlighted the importance of
Egypt’s involvement in the African financial integration initiative,
which aligns with the theme of the Bank’s 2019 Annual
Meetings, which this year is focusing on regional Integration.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udoma, has said the Federal Government would go into negotiations with senior civil servants soon after the bill on the new National Minimum Wage is signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Udoma said this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance on Tuesday in Abuja to give explanations on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Paper.
He said the Executive would meet with relevant stakeholders on the matter as soon as it is signed into law.
“Once we announce the minimum wage, we now enter into negotiations with those who are above the minimum wage.
“So, we have to be prepared for that. We will be meeting with the finance committee on how best this minimum wage will be addressed both from the federal and the state governments.
“This is to ensure that the whole government apparatus is not just to pay salaries. It is important we are able to pay the minimum wage and still have enough resources to do infrastructure, health, agriculture and others,” he said.
The minister stressed that once the minimum wage becomes law, serious emphasis would be laid on productivity.
“As a result of agitation from the unions, the President set up a tripartite committee to look at the minimum wage. It is expected that every five years a review is done.
“We know that the N18,000 is too low and it will be difficult to manage with 18,000 and the president supported the review. It is, however, important that as we are reviewing it, we make sure that we can fund it.
“That is why we set up a committee. So, we will be coming to you as there may be some changes to make sure we can fund the minimum wage,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Senate and House of Representatives have approved N30,000 as the new national minimum wage.
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says ‘factoring’, a form of financial transaction, is a viable and sustainable solution that will address access to finance for Africa’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Ms Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the
Intra-African Trade Initiative at Afreximbank, said this in a statement
by Afreximbank’s Head of Media,
Mr Obi Emekekwue, on Monday in Abuja.
Factoring is also a type of debtor
finance in which a business sells its accounts receivable to a third
party called a factor at a discount.
Emekekwue said the bank’s managing director spoke at a factoring promotion conference in Gaborone.
According to Awani, access to affordable
finance hinders the growth of Africa’s SMEs and Factoring, a form of trade finance will
provide a solution to address the SMEs financing gap.
She said that it would help innovative SMEs to grow and also support Africa’s structural transformation and trade development.
Awani further explained that factoring was an important alternative to other trade financing sources such as bank loans.
“In spite of its huge opportunities,
however, factoring has not yet taken off fully in Africa, with the
region accounting for less than one per cent of global factoring volumes
in 2017.
“Notwithstanding, the region has
demonstrated strong growth in recent years, with factoring volumes
growing from 14.9 billion Euro in 2009 to approximately 22.3 billion
Euro in 2017.
“Most of these volumes are concentrated in South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Mauritius and Kenya,” Awani said.
She said that Africa’s factoring volumes
were projected to reach about 200 billion Euro by 2021, resulting mostly
from new market entrants supported by the sustained economic growth.
She said the projected volume was
expected to result from rapid rise of Africa’s middle class and the
emergence of innovative industries supported by technological
advancements.
She said others include the rapidly
expanding trade and economic relations between Africa and major
economies in the South and increasing focus on regional integration and
intra-regional trade under the African Continental Free
Trade Agreement.
Afreximbank had been playing
leading role in facilitating the growth of factoring in Africa through various interventions.
Some of the interventions include
supporting the creation of a facilitative legal and regulatory
environment for factoring and provision of finance and guarantees to
factoring companies among others.
The two-day Factoring Promotion
Conference had as its theme “Domestic and International Factoring:
Alternative tools for SME financing in Africa.”
It had over 180 attendees whom it
provided practical information on factoring activities and the
importance of factoring in the development and promotion of SME
financing.
It also provided networking opportunities for African factors, bankers, lawyers and others.
frican governments should be ready for a brutal journey as the region prepares to implement a high profile deal known as the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) agreement. This is according to SAP Africa, a leading cloud company and market leader in enterprise application software.
The firm has warned that a number of challenges may make the deal difficult to follow through but is confident that the rewards will be well worth the battle.
Despite its warnings, the company has nonetheless affirmed that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area will likely turn Africa from an aid-dependent continent to an investment-grade powerhouse.
According to SAP Africa Managing Director for Central Africa, Pedro Guerreiro, AfCTA will mark a major moment in Africa’s history, as many leaders from across the continent have predicted.
When the Africa Continental Free Trade Area is implemented this year, it will create a single market for goods and services for the first time in the continent’s history.
The agreement will cover a geographic area with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $3.2trillion and a population of 1.2 billion people. It has the potential to drastically accelerate economic growth and exceed the African Development Bank’s current estimates for GDP growth from $1.7trillion in 2010 to more than $15trillion by 2060.
“A continental super bloc has the potential of creating an attractive value proposition for investors who are dealing with the fallout from Brexit, a US-China tariff war and a global economy that is falling short of projected growth targets,” Guerreiro explained.
He added that for African governments, businesses and citizens, the prospect of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area has prompted widespread excitement and optimism, especially among some of Africa’s leading business and political figures.
“Speaking with one voice as a continent will emerge as perhaps the most important provision of all for the success of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement,” Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa publicly stated that this is a free trade area that has never been seen before anywhere else in the world.
“It’s going to be the largest integrated market on the African continent, which is a clear demonstration that indeed Africa is not only on the rise, but Africa is on the move,” he continued.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) notes that manufacturing only accounts for 10% of total GDP in Africa, well below the figure in other developing regions. A continental free trade area has the potential to reduce this gap and accelerate job creation, especially among young people.
“The continent’s reliance on agriculture, which according to some estimates accounts for 60% of all jobs, could also lead to greater regional coordination to ensure produce matches market demands,” said Guerreiro.
“Legacy infrastructure also poses a challenge, especially in terms of the effective movement of goods between countries that will form part of AfCFTA,” he explained.
“Supply chains are the circulatory system of the global economy, but Africa’s legacy of underdevelopment has left its road, rail and ports infrastructure lacking,” Guerreiro elaborated.
SAP noted that ports infrastructure struggle to keep pace with global standards. While 90% of African imports and exports are driven by sea, PwC estimates that, of the 72% of global container throughput in developing nations, only 1% travels via African ports.
Guerreiro said that effective export trade from AfCFTA to other regions will require a rapid upgrade of the continent’s main trade ports.
Nevertheless, he stated that the past few years have seen an acceleration in public-private partnerships driving youth skills development initiatives, with millions of young people trained in basic coding skills.
“By fostering greater regional and continental integration, efforts to equip Africa’s youthful population with appropriate and future-fit skills could be expanded. And by bringing in the private sector, who can lend training, technology and skills development support, in-country and pan-African initiatives aimed at upskilling Africa’s youth can be accelerated as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.
“Africa is on the rise and on the move. We are entering a new era of free movement, collaboration, and mutual success among all 50 African countries that will form part of AfCFTA,” Guerreiro concluded.
The Export and Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) in Tanzania has lured Indian investors to invest in pulses processing factories.
The investment was lured by the varieties of the legumes grown in the country, with mouth-watering list of benefits when they choose to invest in the crop.
The EPZA`s Director of Investment Promotion and Facilitation, Mr. James Maziku, made the remarks in Dar es Salaam when he hosted a delegation of local businessmen and Indian investors.
He said: “Investors in the processing of pulses are guaranteed opportunities provided through the authority`s facilities including the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) where 80 per cent of the processed products are for exports market.’’
Pulses take up 12 per cent of the perennial crops production in Tanzania and are an important subsistence cash crop for the small scale farmers.
Among the numerous types of pulses grown in the country are dry beans, cowpeas, chickpeas, mung beans and pigeon peas, all grown in the four main zones including Lake, Central, Southern and Northern, which are the leading pulse producing regions in the country.
The director told the delegation that investing under SEZ allows owners to exploit huge domestic and foreign markets, better tax incentives and affordable labor costs.
He said India was still the largest market for pulses from Tanzania and the advent of more investors gives a positive picture that there is a huge and wanting demand for the product.
He also went on to say that since the pulses can grow on over 75 per cent of the arable land in the country thus the initiative gives farmers an opportunity to increase production and improve their earnings.
`The increased investment in the agricultural sector is of importance in assuring farmers reliable and high prices on one side and improving the sector`s contribution to the economy on the other.
The coming of the Indian investors follows a meeting between EPZA and investors at a forum held in India in December last year. The EPZA reported that since last year, there has been a large number of foreign investors showing interests in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing and others.
The government of Ghana has undertaken measures to create industrial zones to decentralize development.
President Nana Akufo-Addo had announced a
number of both immediate and long term policies to support its
industrial agenda and expand production.
Akufo Addo said, Ghana has set activities
in motion to create industrial zones across the country, thereby making
efforts to decentralize development is also evident in the moves the
government is making.
This is also part of the administration’s ten point agenda.
It hopes to develop an industrial park in each of Ghana’s 10 regions.
It will also build on the work of the GFZB, which is establishing export processing zones around the country.
The GFZB already has a land bank in Tema at Greater Accra as well as in Sekondi and Shama, both in the Western Region
The President added that the Shama
facility, located on the seafront, will serve the downstream oil and gas
industry, providing opportunities for refineries.
Meanwhile, supply chain and logistics firms will serve chemicals and downstream activity.
In Sekondi, the GFZB has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hassan Investment, a Chinese firm, to develop the zone.
The company has already reached an
agreement with Bosai Mineral Group, Dazhon Iron and Steel Group, and
First Sunergy as anchor tenants for the new zone.
In the two decades between the start of
the free zones programme in 1996 and 2016, companies operating in such
areas made investments totalling $3.4 billion and generated $30.9
billion
worth of exports.
In 2016 capital investments were valued at $270.7 million, while exports reached $2.3 billion.
By the end of 2016, 201 companies were operating in Ghanaian free zones and were employing just over 30,000 workers.