By Godfrey Bivbere

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Multilinks Academy, an institution for export training needs, Obiora Madu, has canvassed for creation of export areas in all the nation’s seaports instead of designating just one as export terminal.

In an exclusive interview with Vanguard Maritime Report, Madu said the best way to go is for every port to have produce processing facilities, as this bridge logistics is the most expensive part of the business.  

According to him, “Every port should have a processing warehouse; it is not about designating one terminal. Though it is a good idea they must build the needed facilities, it is not about designating it a terminal because those processing facilities are bridge logistics which is the most expensive part of the business.  

“There are certain aspects of the business that should not have been done outside; you do it inside and get the goods to go immediately. If you buy goods for instance in Kano, you move it to Lagos and warehouse it, first of all, process it before you carry it to the port for export.

“Whenever we decide to stop paying lip service to none oil export, we will get better.

“There was a time the government started something like that when priority was given to certain sectors when banks were mandated to give a certain percentage of their loan facilities to these sectors.

“The CBN can now do and undo, but are we worried as a nation about what is going on?  I do not think so because the reason is that when the oil price goes up, we forget about none oil export and when it comes down, they remember it.

“We must have a deliberate policy; these things are not rocket science. Yes, it happens in other countries. I kept telling them that with all the money that they are throwing around for seminars on export; about four ministries will be doing seminars on export, I told Nigeria Export Promotion Council, NEPC that you can get 30 exporters, go and undertake that they should be given money by the banks.

“Monitor them; in fact, you can nominate people to their board in the worse case situation. If 50 percent of them succeed, the multiplier effect of it on the economy will be massive.

“But what they will be checking is the 50 percent that failed, not the 50 percent that succeeded, not the impact on the economy. That is the situation, urgent matters call for urgent solutions.

“You cannot set a fund and say it is for SMEs and at the end of the day, the same reason for which you set up the fund, is the same reason why SMEs were not able to get the fund, I cannot understand it.

“That is the situation we find ourselves in, if you follow the loan criteria from banks, there will hardly be any SME that will be able to access the loan. In the past there was this scheme where SMEs were given loans; people were nominated to the board of these companies for easy monitoring and the nominees’ exit at a time.

“It was a brilliant idea to tackle the situation that we have at hand, that is the kind of thing that export calls for because we have spoken grammar and we have spoken for too long. Go and talk to exporters, nothing has changed,” he noted.