New Telegraph

EEG: FEC approves N375bn disbursement to 285 exporters

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved for disbursement the sum of N375 billion Export Expansion Grant (EEG) to 285 beneficiaries.

 

With the approval, it will move to the National Assembly any moment from now for legislative endorsement.

 

Executive Director/CEO, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Dr. Ezra Yakusak, confirmed, at the weekend, in Abuja, adding that the sum would effectively clear EEG arrears from 2006 till date.

 

EEG is a government trade policy facility administered by NEPC. It aims to support active exporters to expand their international businesses. EEG is a post-shipment incentive designed to encourage Nigerian exporters to expand export volume, value and improve global competitiveness of Nigerian products.

 

New Telegraph reported, last month, Federal Government’s  regulatorplan to clear EEG backlog. While process reported for settling the backlog was on-going, NEPC, as a policy implementing body, had come up with the initiative that places emphasis on EGG exporter beneficiaries on value addition on items of export.

 

Speaking to journalists at the weekend, in Abuja, during NEPC Export 4 survival walk, Yakusak hinted that approval had just been secured.

 

“To boost non-oil export, the Federal Executive Council has just approved the sum of N375 billion as Export Expansion Grant to all exporters that applied for EEG. And that means that the backlog from 2006 to date has been cleared and exporters will expect that any moment from now. Right now, it is going to be taken to the National Assembly for approval. About 285 exporters are beneficiaries from that EEG,” he noted.

 

On the initiatives being undertaken to boost non-oil export, he said last month’s conference on non-oil export came up with a number of initiatives.

 

“Initiatives come as challenges arise. From the outcome of the last conference, we have resolved to pick up new exporters that have no idea of what it means to export, we are going to match make them with all exporters to train them on non-oil exports from the rudiments, the procedures to ensure that they export.

 

“The challenges facing development of non-oil exports and that has to do with supply side constraints; issue of packaging, issue of logistics and market access. And so from that conference, we intend to implement every point of the communiqué that was made during that conference.

 

“There are so many strategies to overcome the challenges. One of the challenges is logistics constraints concerning our exports in terms of log jam in the ports especially Lagos ports. So, we have done the domestic warehouse initiative which is to curb logistic constraints and ensure that our goods don’t stay for months before being shipped because almost every export contract has a shelf life and once you don’t meet up with time for that export, the contract will be cancelled and this bad news for the exporters that affect our economy as a whole,” the NEPC boss said.

Evaluating the impact of export for survival walk, he said the quarterly body walkouts was paying off.

“We are achieving our aim for the NEPC walk on export for survival because this has led to an increase in the registration of non-oil exporters. There has been an influx in the number of people coming to register and we know that it is as a result of this initiative.

 

EEG is a government trade policy facility administered by NEPC. A Nigerian exporter can get between five per cent and 15 per cent of their annual export value, depending on exporters’ product category. Successful exporters are paid through the instrument known as Export Credit Certificate (ECC), which can be used to settle all Federal Government taxes such as Company Income Tax, VAT, WHT, etc, include pushing of Federal Government bonds and settlement of other credit facilities by Bank of Industry, NEXIM Bank, Bank of Agriculture and CBN intervention facilities.

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