Nigeria Has No Documentation Of Oil, Non-oil Export, Ministry Says
By Ogbolu George
It was revealed to the Senate, that since June 2015, Nigeria’s exporting of oil and non-oil products were not documented, which has resulted in the country losing up to N23.6 billion expected repatriated proceeds of the exports within the period.
The findings were revealed, on Monday, during an investigative public hearing organised by the Joint Committee of the Senate Committees on Finance, Trade and Investment, Gas, Petroleum Upstream, Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, and Customs, Excise and Tariff on the ”Need to Investigate Pre-Shipment Inspection of Export Activities in Nigeria.”
Usman Ndanusa, a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, who represented the Ministry at the public hearing, disclosed that the country had been exporting its oil and non-oil products without measurement and documentation.
He said the development occurred because pre-shipment inspection agents were disengaged from the various export terminal in the country and they were replaced with agents who were asked to carry out the pre-shipment work at the terminal without constitutional backing
The senate alleged it has discovered over $850 billion earned by the country between 1996 and 2014 from its crude oil export proceeds but it was yet to be repatriated to the country by the Joint Venture Oil Companies.
It said the development was a total contravention of Nigeria’s Pre-shipment Inspection of Export Act and Article 26 of Export Policy Guidelines and Procedures for crude oil, Gas and non-oil goods.
