Niyi Adebayo, the minister of industry, trade, and investment, says the federal government (FG) has suspended the issuance of licences for the operation of free trade zones (FTZs) in the country.
Adebayo announced this on Monday at the inauguration of the panel set up to
evaluate the performance of FTZs.
A free-trade zone is a class of special economic zone within
a geographic area where goods may land, stored, handled, manufactured, or
reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally
not subject to customs duty
A statement by Ifedayo Sayo, his spokesperson, quoted him as
saying that all applications for FTZs licences would not be processed until the
completion of the panel’s task.
“It is important to note that FTZs in most developed
countries have contributed successfully to their industrialisation process,” he
said.
“The model was adopted by the Asian Tigers and today, most
countries, including African countries, are beginning to key into the idea.
“Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade
and Investment (FMITI), has begun delivery of world-class FTZs across the
country.
“However, due to poor implementation, we have yet to take
delivery of the dynamic potentials of FTZs as an instrument for economic
growth.”
The trade minister lamented that despite having 33 licensed
FTZ operators in the country, only 12 are operational due to poor
implementation.
“Currently the performance of FTZs licensees has been below
expectation and this heavily impacts our ability to deliver on crucial priority
areas of the government,” Adebayo said.
“FTZs are key to the nation’s push towards industrialisation
and will have a significant impact on Nigeria’s trade and economic fortunes
which is greatly required given the current economic challenges.
“Globally, FTZs
account for 68 million jobs and generate USD 500 billion annually.
“The sector can be extremely lucrative if executed
efficiently and we must aim to improve the operation of our zones.”
He explained that the panel would provide a set of
recommendations to inform government strategy on FTZs based on a thorough
assessment of their current operations.
Also, the panel would work through the context of the terms
of references provided to deliver a clear and detailed report within eight
weeks of inauguration.
According to him, this would facilitate the delivery of world-class FTZs, as expected
under the presidential priority projects (PPP).
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com