Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Mr Hassan Bello, has challenged stakeholders in the ECOWAS sub-region to work towards eliminating issues of trade barriers.
Bello who spoke at the Borderless Alliance workshop and launch of ECOWAS Trade Liberlisation Scheme (ETLS) handbook in Lagos said the sub-region would benefit more when trade barriers are removed.
The NSC chief executive who was represented on the occasion by the Director, Consumer Affairs of the Council, Chief Cajetan Agu added that trade barriers would ease when stakeholders and authorities comply with approved standards and rules.
He called for synergy between the public and private sectors to achieve the necessary cost effectiveness in doing business in the sub-region.
He said, “removing obstacles to intra-regional integration in the ECOWAS sub-region would be particularly beneficial to the small-scale traders that conduct cross border commerce within the sub-region”.
He identified the potential benefits as food security, job creation, poverty reduction, increased tax revenues for authorities and long-term development.
“It is our belief that if relevant stakeholders and authorities comply with approved standards and rules, barriers to trade would automatically ease off and pave-way for seamless operations at our borders. The public and private sectors should therefore synergize to achieve the necessary cost effectiveness in doing business in the sub-region”, he said.
Bello commended the Borderless Alliance and UKaid for developing ETLS Handbook which is a compilation of documentation requirements needed to transact cross-border trade.
The handbook identifies common barriers facing cross-border trade stakeholders for specified products.