The federal government has announced the launch of the Nigeria Trade Information Portal (NTIP) in fulfilment of World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement pledges.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, on Monday.
He stated that this was due to collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) alongside the European Union and German Technical Cooperation.
The minister said UNCTAD commenced the establishment of trade information portals in three West African countries, namely Nigeria, Benin, and Mali as a pilot phase in 2016.
- “This is with a view to assisting developing WTO member countries in complying easily with the WTO-Trade Facilitation Agreement.
- “Today, it is with great satisfaction that we acknowledge the success of the collaboration between UNCTAD, GIZ, EU and the Federal Government. Our ties have indeed become stronger over the years,” he said.
Enhancing transparency: He added that the online information portal will enable data for import, export and transit procedures and a great step toward enhancing “ transparency in accordance with Article 1 of the WTO-TFA but also to identify bottlenecks and unnecessary administrative constraints and also to drive the expected reforms for trade facilitation.
- “The establishment of NITP is a major breakthrough for automation of trade procedures in Nigeria. It is important to state that trade information portals in some pioneer countries have contributed to building trust between various stakeholders,” Adebayo said.
He noted that the key features of the NITP (https://nigeriatradepprtal.fmiti.gov.ng) include a content management system where all texts, colours, pictures and logos of the public interface can be modified and also procedures and all corresponding data can be registered and updated, menus can be organised and administrative rights can be easily configured from the password-protected administrative interface.
For the record: Nigeria recorded a total foreign trade of N12.84 trillion in the second quarter of 2022, representing a 32.2% increase compared to the corresponding period of 2021 (N9.71 trillion).
Nigeria earned N7.41 trillion from export in the period under review, compared to N5.02 trillion recorded in the corresponding period of 2021. This indicates a 47.5% year-on-year increase.
On the other hand, the import bills increased 15.8% year-on-year to N5.44 trillion. Although compared to the previous quarter it declined by 7.9%
The FG said this was due to collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) alongside European Union and German Technical Cooperation
