R-L: Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Dr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu and the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, His Excellency Wamkele Mene during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Zenith Bank Plc and AfFCTA for the development of a smart portal, at the 8th Annual Edition of the Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar on Non-Oil Export held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, yesterday.
By Our Reporter
Zenith Bank Plc has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the AfricanContinental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat for the development of theSMARTAfCFTA Portal, for trade promotion within the African continent. TheSMARTAfCFTA Portal, which has the capacity to provide information like trade indicators,market trends, custom tariffs, trade agreements, rules of origin, market access requirementsof relevant jurisdictions, export potentials, export diversification indicators and contactdetails of business partners in target markets and other trade-related information aboutAfrica, will help to unlock the vast opportunities for trade on the African continent.The MoU was signed by the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Dr.Ebenezer Onyeagwu and the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, His ExcellencyWamkele Mene, during the 8th Annual Edition of the Zenith Bank International TradeSeminar on Non-Oil Export themed “Nigerian Non-Oil Export Industry: The Present, TheFuture”, held on Wednesday, August 8, 2023, at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagosand virtually.Speaking on the partnership with AfCFTA for the development of the SMARTAfCFTAPortal, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank, Dr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, said:”This collaboration aims to unlock the vast opportunities presented by AfCFTA not only forNigeria’s economic prosperity but also for advancing trade across African countries”. Dr. Onyeagwu noted the key role that the annual Zenith Bank Trade Seminar plays indeepening the conversation on promoting non-oil export in Nigeria by bringing together non-oil export practitioners and relevant government agencies to interact and explore theopportunities and proffer solutions to the challenges of non-oil export in the country, notingthat previous editions’ outcomes have found expression and influenced policy initiatives. Forinstance, the extension of the period of repatriation of Non-Oil Export proceeds from 90days to 180 days, and the policy mandating shippers not to carry export without a NigeriaExport Proceeds (NXP) Form Number were recommendations from previous seminars.Also, the need to incentivise exporters to repatriate their export proceeds through the officialchannels and the recommendation to create export terminals across various export hubs inthe country were also from past seminars. Also, previous editions recommended havingExport Desks in commercial banks, which has now been instituted.In his keynote address at the Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar, the Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, His Excellency Wamkele Mene, thanked the Founderand Chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, CFR, for partnering with the AfCFTA for thedevelopment of the SMARTAfCFTA Portal. In his words: “Zenith Bank was the first bank tosay “we want to partner with you”. We went to see the Founder and Chairman, and he said
that Zenith Bank wants to make a contribution to digitise trade in Africa. And so the portalwas not my idea, it was not our idea at the AfCTA Secretariat, it was Zenith Bank thatstepped up and said, ‘this has to be done!’. So I want to thank you very much, GMD for thiscollaboration.” In his goodwill message, Dr. Kingsley Obiora, the Deputy Governor of Economic Policyrepresenting the Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Folashodun AdebisiShonubi, commended Zenith Bank for leading Nigeria’s non-oil export promotion advocacy.He bemoaned the 1.2 per cent non-oil export to total GDP ratio and emphasised the needfor concerted efforts to boost non-oil exports in Nigeria.Zenith Bank launched the Non-Oil Export Seminar in 2016 as an initiative to deepen thediscourse on promoting the non-oil export business in Nigeria. The 2023 International TradeSeminar also featured a goodwill message from the Secretary of the National ActionCommittee on AfCFTA, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo. There were also two-panel discussions,with the first panel discussion titled: “Nigeria Non-Oil Export Industry – GrowthOpportunities”, while the second panel discussion was titled: “Harnessing the Opportunitiesin Service Export”.
