Abuja — The Federal Government has removed the bank guarantee requirement for exporters, giving them unfettered access to Negotiable Duty Credit Certificates (NDCCs) in a bid to encourage export and stimulate the non-oil sector of the economy.

The NDCC, also known as Export Expansion Grants (EEG), enables an exporter to offset part or whole of the Customs and Excise duties payable to the government.

Minister of State for Finance Remi Babalola who made the removal of the bank guarantee requirement known in a statement yesterday by his Special Assistant on Communications, Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde, said the decision was one of the highpoints of the meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the EEG Scheme.

The Committee, which is the policy-making body of the EEG Scheme, is chaired by Babalola.

The meeting, which was held behind closeddoors, at the Federal Ministry of Finance, was attended by representatives from the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Cen-tral Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Manufactur-ers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Economic and Finan-cial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Presidential Commit-tee on Trade Malpractices, Fiscal Policy and Budget Monitoring Department of the Federal Ministry of Finance and consultants to the scheme, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Babalola, at the high-level meeting, was said to have expressed the government's commitment to step up the operations of the EEG towards the realisation of its key objective of stimulating export-oriented activities that would lead to the growth of the non-oil export sector in Nigeria.

He explained that the removal of the bank guarantee requirement was to eliminate additional costs to the exporters as well as remove impediments of doing business in the country.

According to the statement, Babalola said the removal would encourage exporters to venture into the non-oil business, thus enhancing foreign exchange earnings for the country.

He said: "The Federal Government believes that with this bold initiative to give vitality to the scheme, it will not be long before the non-oil sector begins to gain ascendancy in contributing foreign exchange into the national coffers.

"This is in line with government's avowed policy of diversification of the national earning base. I want to enjoin all stakeholders to support this Scheme fully, towards making our nation a force to be reckoned with in the world."

The meeting, the statement disclosed, reviewed the key objectives of the Scheme, highlighting its contributions in boosting the non-oil sector of the economy. It was agreed that while there are areas of observed lapses, which require improvement, the Scheme should be supported by all stakeholders.

Similarly, the meeting resolved that various strategies aimed at improving the turnaround time involved in the issuance of the NDCC should be instituted, particularly the need to improve record-keeping by exporters and setting deadlines for the NEPC to process outstanding 2007 and 2008 Certificates.

Other resolutions at the meeting, according to the statement, were that the Nigeria Customs Service should honour the NDCC as payment for duties, resolution of the issue of double-dipping and the need for a Technical Committee to review other challenges confronting the scheme.

To benefit from the scheme, exporters are required to register with the NEPC after meeting certain criteria.

The scheme is company specific and utilises data from the exporters' audited financial statements filed with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to assess them on the basis of weighted eligibility criteria.

These criteria include export growth, investment growth, local content, value addition, employment generation and priority sector.

Thereafter, exporters are entitled to make claims based on the value of export proceeds they receive and duly certified by the CBN. The approved claims are paid to exporters by government through the use of a negotiable instrument known as the NDCC.

The scheme has gone through some transformations since inception, but it has been contributing significantly to the development of non-oil exports in Nigeria.

Over the years, it has shown to be an invaluable platform for Nigerian exporters to contribute positively to the national economy.