New Post

Happy Tuesday and Welcome to Export Brief. A weekly newsletter with insightful developments and trends on non-oil export trade from Africa's largest economy and from the global stage. If you enjoy EB, share it with friends. 

• ⏲️: This edition is 1313 words, a 4-minute read.

IN BRIEF

⚡ Situational awareness: Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) votes to raise MPR (interest rate) by 50 basis points from 17.5% to 18%. This is contrary to our prediction of maintaining 17.5% in our last edition.

• Afreximbank provides $350, 000 funding for Nigeria Inland Waterways

• Nigeria targets $50m export to U.S from AGOA

TRADE

1 big brief | Afreximbank: $350,000 fund for Nigeria to develop inland waterways

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has provided a grant of $350,000 to Nigeria for the development of Inland Waterways along the Lower River Niger.

Why it matters: The bank said in a statement, that the fund was provided for the project in a deal with the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Navy.

• The project is expected to facilitate the movement of goods using navigable waterways in Nigeria to facilitate intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

Be smart: The launch of the navigational charts followed the Maritime Survey and Charting Project executed by the Sealink Consortium in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and Neximbank which was financed through the grant from Afreximbank.

Between the lines: The Charting project was made possible by the grant from Afreximbank in recognition of the importance of inland waterways transportation and by extension, coastal waterways transportation, to its mandate of promoting Intra-African trade.

• The Charting covered a distance of 456 km from Jamata, Lokoja to Burutu and has been approved by the International Centre for Electronic Navigational Charts having met International Hydrographic Organization’s standards.

💬What they're saying: “A major milestone in the quest to unlock the huge potentials in transportation on Nigeria’s inland waterways had been recorded on March 16, 2023, with the unveiling of the Navigational Charts of the Lower River Niger by the Minister for Transportation, Mr. Mu’azu Sambo.

Bottomline: Although some more work like dredging and removal of identified wrecks are still expected to be done on the channel, navigational activities can commence with the use of the Charts which Mariners can obtain from the International Centre for Electronic Navigational Charts either in hard copy or electronic form.

UPCOMING EVENT

Attend GTR West Africa 2023 as a guest of IEOM

This event is a paid event and for corporate attendees, the fee is $499 while the standard rate is $1799. That information is also available here.

• IEOM is an institutional partner for GTR West Africa 2023 and this allows the Institute to admit a limited number of our corporate members to the event for FREE. As a corporate member of IEOM, your company can send a company representative to the event without the need to pay the standard or corporate rate.

• IEOM corporate membership costs N150, 000.00 and this is an annual subscription providing access to real benefits which include access to business roundtables (breakfast meetings), publications including research, discounted training, market intelligence for specific markets/products. For value, this is a much greater value than the standard/corporate rate for a one-time event.

TRADE ROUNDUP

EXPORT | Nigeria targets $50m export to U.S from AGOA

Nigerian government has inaugurated a technical committee on the utilisation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with a target export volume of $ 50 million to the United States.

• Establishing the committee was part of the Trade ministry’s commitment to ensuring that Nigeria takes advantage of AGOA, which expires in 2025. The ministry’s determination is to address the challenges that Nigerian manufacturers and exporters face in meeting labeling, packaging, and product-specific standards.

GLOBAL TRADE | Global growth outlook improves, but rate hike impact still ahead - FitchRatings

• Global growth prospects for 2023 have improved significantly since December, says Fitch Ratings in its latest Global Economic Outlook (GEO) report, but the impacts of rate hikes on the real economy still lie ahead and are likely to push the US economy into recession later this year.

• Fitch now forecasts world growth in 2023 at 2.0%, revised up from 1.4% in the December 2022 GEO. We have raised China’s 2023 growth forecast to 5.2% from 4.1% in December, eurozone growth to 0.8% from 0.2% and US growth to 1.0% from 0.2%.

TRADE | Trade Facilitation Agreement has increased trade by over US$ 230 billion, new study finds

• The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) led to a US$ 231 billion increase in trade, particularly in agriculture, according to estimates for the first couple of years of its implementation presented to the Committee on Trade Facilitation on 22 March. Developing members and least-developed country (LDC) members that have made commitments under the landmark agreement posted the most gains, the estimates find.

UPCOMING EVENT

A MESSAGE FROM GGI

Climate Action: With exploration comes the need for expertise and sustainability

At GGI, we combined expertise, innovation and sustainable practices in meeting our client's engagements. Our actions to mitigate climate change are central to making the world a better place. Learn more.

IEOM

The Institute of Export Operations & Management, as a Trade Support Institute is out to stimulate and facilitate non-oil export in Nigeria. Our vision is to become the foremost independent provider of export training and best research practice in Nigeria. In line with our mission, our intensive training progams both online and on-premise among others are designed to optimize your trade capacity and knowledge. We actualize this through the following:

• Access to Low-Interest Loan from our partner Bank*

• Export breakfast meetings

• The Export Brief magazine

• Seminars and workshops

• Banker and Exporter training

• Trade access and facilitation

Trade Intelligence Unit (TIU) is a division of IEOM Nigeria, providing export trade information, research, insights and analytics for organizations, agencies of government, businesses and individuals to help them make informed decisions. We help our clients by leverage on our proprietary tools to create access into our rich trade database in delivering innovative solutions.Join us in our quest to make Africa's largest economy to be self-sufficient through non-oil export and become a member of IEOM.*We have partnered with Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria in creating access to low-interest loans for our MSMEs members.For enquiries on memberships, trainings and collaboration on sponsorships of events, newsletters and magazine you can reach us on+234 909 332 8361, +234 808 302 [email protected].

ADVERTISE IN EB NEWSLETTER

DATA WATCH

TWEET OF THE WEEK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

CHARTING THE WATERWAYS: 1. Nigeria's Minister for Transportation, Mr. Mu’azu Sambo and Secretary to the Government of Nigeria, Mr. Boss Mustapha admiring the unveiled NIWA Inland Waterways Chart project financed by Afreximbank and Neximbank in Abuja recently. Image credit: Afreximbank