FG resumes export expansion grant

The Federal Government is processing all applications for the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) for the last four years.

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) yesterday opened the submission and processing of baseline data for the purpose of determining exporters’ EGG rates for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 non-oil exports.

This development followed the lifting of the ban on the EGG scheme after several years of outcry by exporters.

The federal government budgeted N20 billion in the 2017 budget for the grant.

The controversy surrounding the resumption of the grant deepened late last year as the House of Representatives urged the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, to halt the resumption of the grant.

The EEG, before its suspension, accumulated a backlog of over N150 billion, which exporters begged the federal government to settle.

The inclusion of the grant in the budget indicates that the federal government is poised at resuming the grant this year.

The EEG was conceived in 1999 as a very important incentive required for the stimulation of export-oriented activities that would lead to significant growth of the non-oil export sector.

The grant was designed to be disbursed to qualified exporters in the form of the Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate (NDCC) and utilised by beneficiaries for the payment of customs and excise duty on their export shipments.

To be eligible for export grant, an exporter must be registered with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), shall be a manufacturer or merchant of products of Nigerian origin for the export market, must have a minimum annual export turnover of N5 million and evidence of repatriation of proceeds of exports and shall submit its baseline data which include audited financial statement and information on operational capacity to NEPC.