Mr Alonge Bolaji is the Chief Executive Officer of Alonge Export Link Concept. He is also the Coordinator, Export and Agric Trade Group of NACCIMA. In this interview with Roland Ekama, he sheds light on the challenges facing export business in Nigeria and other sundry issues.
How true is it that Nigerian exporters are not benefiting from exporting raw materials to Europe, and America?
That is true because they are not benefiting from exportation and again there are certain things that the federal government needs to put in place. When we talk of export there must be export bonded warehouses, because in Nigeria today, majority of our bonded warehouses have been converted into churches and it has also affected exportation thus all warehouses are meant for industrial development, but when warehouses that are meant for industrial development are converted to churches, then it means that commerce will not grow in Nigeria and except an amendment is made, I think it will be difficult for us to move ahead as far as export is concerned.
Again when we talk about non-oil export, then we need to put everything that will make export reliable; for example, let there be good roads , good rail system ,sufficient number of bonded warehouses where the exporters can put their goods before proceeding to the ports for exportation . Today our port system has no railway and it is a huge factor that militates against export. Today Ghana is making a lot of money from export because from anywhere in Ghana, train moves to their ports from anywhere down to the harbours without logistics headache, but in Nigeria, you will have to pay much money for trailers to convey your goods and we also expect the ports to work 24 hours thus during the day time is supposedly for importers while at night it is supposed to be for forwarding. But in Nigeria, the port closes by 4pm or 5 pm and it is affecting export. If the Nigerian government is serious about addressing non-oil export, they should put all these factors in proper perspective by providing 24 hours power supply at the ports, 24 hours ports operations.
What is your assessment of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council?
They are actually living up to expectations, but I must say that the council is being starved of fund by the government. The truth is that there is no fund for the council and the little fund disbursed to them is not enough and again you will agree with me that the council does not generate fund by itself. The license they issue to us (the exporters) is nothing to talk about it is more or less; peanut but then government needs to fund them so that they can be independent to create means of revenue for themselves and the government. But when they depend on registration of certificate alone, it cannot go anywhere. But if government want to make the export council active, they should give them fund to carry out research, train their staff, do what they call industrial courses to meet international standard, let there be even bonded warehouse controlled by the council and to be supervised by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council. By then you will find out that whenever there is problem of export all the Nigerian exporters will seek advice from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, thus with the assistance from the Nigerian Shippers Council I think things will take a new dimension and at the end, you will find out that we have where to run to whenever we have challenges with our business. Today, there is no uniform price in the trade, Asia charge very low; that is from Nigeria to Asia while America and Europe charge very high. And when you look at the distance you find out that Asia is farther compared to the two other continents and that is why you see every village in Nigeria receive China for business.
Which one is more favourable for Nigerian exporters between American and Asian markets?
In terms of export, the American market would have been more lucrative to us but America has added sentiment into their policy which is not favourable to Africans, but a country like China in Asia throws it open to us. For example if you cannot afford to buy a phone coming from America or UK, you can go get that of China and they have large patronage in Nigeria. Our country needs to be moved by the system of our population ,take advantage of our population that is whoever wishes to work with us or wants to partner with us must have it that it is for the purpose of developing the country and not to take advantage of what we have.
What do you think can be done to ensure that the Nigerian exporters are empowered to understand the business?
And that is why I said that the government needs to fund the Nigerian Export Promotion Council because you discover that in Nigeria the informal exporters are more than the formal exporters because they are no proper orientation , no proper workshop , no proper summit and the government fail to identify the problem we are facing and if we are to take advantage of export, ,ministry of trade , the export promotion council , and stakeholders need to sit on a round table at least three times in a year and put in place workshop and seminar so that we can have the opportunity to share ideas and from there, find solutions to the problems.
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How would you describe export and import trade generally in Nigeria?
Nigeria is more or less an import dependent nation; we are not really into export. For export to be effective there must be standards set out for us. As at today, I need to send palm kernel shell to Turkey and they are asking for SGS report for protein but today SGS does not have laboratories, that is standard labs that can carry out samples except they carry such sample to France and the international body has not yet recognised certificate issued by NAFDAC which again is a hindrance to our business and we all know that NAFDAC has all the laboratories but they are not been patronised yet.
Back to training ,how true is it that a large chunk of the Nigerian exporters are under informed in their business and how can they get the required training ?
In export, we have grades which include: small, medium scale exporters and multinational company exporters. Like in Nigeria now those people that are making money on export are foreign countries, like Holland and I can say authoritatively that Holland dominates the export business because when they go to the banks as white, the banks listen to them but when Nigerians go to the same banks, they will continue to give us conditions that are not tenable at all. The Indians, Americans that are doing business in the country have the backing of the import and export banks of their country of origin. Our import and export banks are only making political statement and I must confess that they are not helping our registered exporters and that they are only concentrating efforts to finance the import market.
Can you please shed more light on the informal and formal exporters?
When you go to Oyingbo or a place like Idumota market in Lagos, we have women who come all the way from Togo and other West Africa countries doing exportation without obtaining export license, they also do not go through any form of documentation that is an informal exporter, while the formal exporter still needs to go possess form ‘M’ and other documentations. When you go to Cotonou and Lome, you will find Nigeria products there; those products do not have certificate of origin , no export license and do not pay a dime to the government, but those who are registered exporters need to get formal documentation .
What kind of raw materials do you export, do you have any intention to quit because of the reason that you have mentioned?
I export cassava chips, peanut and this business is one that we inherited from our forefathers . My grandfather was a produce buyer in cocoa and we decided to turn it from small scale to a larger scale where we are now and today we are the largest exporter of cassava chips to China and we are been supported by Ecobank because we have confirmed and standard (SC) raised from the bank of China which is in conformity with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and based on this, CBN is giving us export financing which we are satisfied with. Again I can not be the only one because they are so many exporters and I want it to go round.
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