The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has threatened to penalize shipping companies exporting undocumented cargoes from the country. CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said this today while speaking at the RT200 Non-Oil Export Summit 2023 in Abuja.
The theme of the summit is “RT200: Challenges and Prospects”.
Emefiele said the development of the non-oil export sector is crucial given that it holds vast potential for generating a significant amount of foreign exchange earnings.
He said the CBN regularly monitors and appeals to exporters to document their exports and repatriate proceeds so it can be utilized optimally for the benefit of the country’s economy.
He, however, said the apex bank was aware that some people try as much as possible to sidetrack the process by attempting to export their cargo without documentation. “About three years ago, I had a meeting at the Central Bank of Nigeria in Lagos with the shipping lines. I had said the central bank will be beaming some satellites on undocumented exports.
“We had advised the shipping lines at that meeting that we will also be monitoring and if we find that they export cargo without documentation that we will penalize them including placing their accounts on post-no-debit (PND).
“We have so far not done anything like that just because we feel that the shipping lines will be responsible to do what is right. But, if we do not see the kind of cooperation that we expect, I’d have to insist that we do what we need to do,” he said.
