By Modupe Gbadeyanka
In a bid to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria, the Federal Government has approved the reduction of timeline for processing the mandatory form NXP.
Before any export business is initiated in Nigeria, an exporter is required to register with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and is mandated to complete and register Form NXP with an authorized dealer (any commercial or merchant bank) of his choice.
The main aim of this is to ensure goods to be exported meet with the buyer’s expectation (order) since the goods will be subjected to inspection, conducted by relevant government agencies.
It is also to ensure only goods that have satisfied the buyer’s order have been shipped and that proceeds due to the exporter are duly repatriated within 90 days of shipment of goods and credited to his domiciliary account maintained with the authorized dealer that proceed or registered the Form NXP. The NXP form is completed in six copies and it is processed
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in a circular signed by its Director of Trade & Exchange Department, Mr W.D. Gostring, said, “The timeline for processing Form NXP by the authorised dealers shall be a maximum of 48 hours from the receipt of the application subject to appropriate documentations.”
The apex bank further stated in the circular issued on Thursday that, “Authorised dealers shall submit returns to CBN in compliance with the 48 hours timeline.”
Adedapo Adesanya