The Nation Newspaper

Tag: exportation

  • Exporters hail govt on exportation from Ikorodu terminal 

    The Federal Government has been given the tumbs up for exporting agricultural produce through the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal.

    Over 30 export laden containers were moved by barges from the terminal to Lagos sea port as part of measures to decongest the ports and boost the economy.

    The gesture, exporters said, would enable Nigerians to maximise the facilities at the moribund terminal.

    Speaking during the flag-off of using barges to ferry over 31 containers laden with agricultural produce from Ikorodu to Apapa port,  NPA’s Managing Director, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, said her agency has the mandate to ensure effective utilisation of the Ikorodu terminal for export.

    President Muhammadu Buhari administration, she said, is committed to encouraging export promotion through the terminal while NPA would ensure adherence to occupational health and safety as panacea to efficient port services in line with international best practices.

    She urged Nigerians to come forward and avail themselves of the emerging opportunities in the agricultural export market to boost foreign exchange earnings and  strategically position the country on the global business community

    They said they were happy that a major infrastructure at Ikorodu, which was idle for decades, came alive again under the initiative of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Managing Director Ms Hadiza Bala Usman.

    An exporter, Mr Ken Adeyanju,  said  the rejection of Nigerian commodity and produce at the international market would soon be a thing of the past.

     

  • Stakeholders seek end to exportation of arbitral hearings

    Speakers at a roundtable organised by the International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation Abuja (ICAMA) have urged Africans to end the practice of going abroad for arbitration, reports Eric Ikhilae.

    Legal experts gathered in Abuja last week to examine the state of arbitration and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practice on the continent.

    Speakers noted that although steps have been taken to grow and sustain the ADR culture in Africa, much still need to be done, particularly in relation to commercial dispute management.

    They stressed the need for stakeholders, beginning with state actors, to implement measures towards creating a conducive business environment on the continent.

    Key among these measures, they said, include the perfection of arbitration and ADR mechanisms to allow for local management of disputes.

    This, they said, would help to reverse the trend where arbitral disputes are shipped outside the continent for resolution.

    The event was the 2017 biannual African Arbitration Roundtable, with the theme: “Growing and sustaining domestic arbitration and ADR in Africa.”

    It was put together by the International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation Abuja (ICAMA), currently chaired by former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Bayo Ojo (SAN).

    Speakers at the opening session were the President of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa; Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN); Ojo; President, Chartered Institute of Arbitration London (CIAL), Prof (Dr) Nayla Comair-Obeid and CIAL’s Director-General, Anthony Abrahams.

    Others were the President, National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Babatunde Adejumo; Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator David Umaru and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Justice, Razaq Atunwa.

    The event also featured five other sessions, with each examining an aspect of the roundtable’s broad theme. The first and second sessions had as sub-themes: “Growing and sustaining arbitration and ADR in Africa:  Historical background, policy objectives and issues;” and “Promotion and harmonisation of economic growth: The role of African states.”

    The other three sessions examined “African states and governments: to use or not to use ADR; Balancing the relationship between courts and arbitration (ADR); and Arbitration and ADR in Africa: Where do we go from here?”

    Bulkachuwa contended that it was time African put an end to the practice where arbitral disputes were exported for settlement.

    She urged Africa to develop its ADR capacities, including providing skilled hands to drive the process. This, she noted, was necessary in view of the increasing number of arbitration cases involving Africans and African businesses.

    Bulkachuwa, who identified efforts being made by her court to institutionalise ADR, said the Appeal Court would, by the end of this year, commission its ADR centres in Abuja, Lagos and two other divisions, as a way of activating the provision of Order 16 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2016.

    She said under the arrangement, where a case subjected to the court’s ADR process (known as the Court of Appeal Arbitration Process – CAAP) succeeds, the court shall adopt the agreement reached by parties as its judgment. But where it fails, the appeal shall be taken through the normal procedure of the court.

    Malami said the Nigerian government was aware that the existence of an effective dispute resolution mechanism was key to attracting investment. He said, having realised this, it was now willing to work with all stakeholders in the public and private sectors to ensure that disputes were resolved timeously.

    He said: “We shall also continue to collaborate with the Judiciary, which has a key role to play in ensuring the overall efficacy of dispute resolution mechanisms in the country, including a ADR.”

    Malami, who hailed Ojo and ICAMA for working to promote arbitration and ADR practice in the country and the continent. He urged the gathering to dwell on ways arbitration and other ADR options could better serve the nation’s economy, as a tool for timeous resolution of commercial investment disputes.

    Ojo said his group has made considerable contribution to the country’s drive to increase the popularity and utilisation of arbitration and other alternative dispute mechanisms “as an active component of the national strategy to build a more credible, humane and efficient justice delivery system capable of adjudicating dispute expeditiously and ultimately, enhance the ease of doing business in the country.”

    He argued that it was now imperative that, African countries, who are seeking to attract foreign direct investments, must first put in place a conducive business environment – a key factor of which is the provision of means of prompt dispute resolution.

    Ojo, who noted that arbitration was fast becoming the preferred mechanism for oiling the wheel of economic growth, stressed the need to evolve ways of growing and sustaining domestic arbitration in Africa.

    He said the ICAMA roundtable is intended as a platform to engage the diverse perspectives and experiences of arbitrators and other stakeholders in addressing existing challenges in arbitration and ADR practice on the continent, with a view to evolving effective means of dispute resolution in Africa.

    Adejumo said it was impossible for any nation to grow and attract investments where disputes are not resolved within the shortest possible time.

    He attributed the slow growth of ADR practice on the continent to lawyers’ unfounded apprehension that their embrace of arbitration and other forms of ADR would negatively impact on their earnings. He argued that lawyers would actually earn more where disputes were promptly resolved and not held down in the long-winding process of litigation.

    Umar, who assured that the Senate would do all within its powers to encourage arbitration practice in the country, said the upper legislative chamber was working to ensure that when passed, the ‘Bill for the amendment of the extant arbitration law’ will meet the expectation of all.

    Represented by Igariwey Iduma Enwo (a member of the House of Representatives), Atunwa noted that in Nigeria, as elsewhere in Africa, the future in settling business disputes now lies in arbitration and other ADR mechanisms.

    This, he said, results from the fact that the conventional recourse to courts could be too slow, cumbersome and prohibitive in cost.

    Keynote speaker, Comair-Obed, stressed among others, the urgent need for Africa to grow its ADR capacities through enhanced financing and manpower development.

  • Fed Govt bans raw solid minerals exportation

    Fed Govt bans raw solid minerals exportation

    Nigeria in the next six month will stop the exportation of raw solid minerals as part of the country’s economic diversification efforts,  Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi has said.

    Fayemi in a lecture titled: Nigeria’s solid minerals: prospects and challenges and the nation’s quest for economic diversification delivered in Abuja during the induction training for non-career ambassadors-designate, said measures have already been put in place to make this a reality by October.

    He said the move to end the era of mining and exporting raw or unprocessed solid mineral from the country was part of the ministry’s roadmap.

    Fauemi therefore charged the ambassadors-designate to attract investors into the mining sector of the economy

    “Before now, a lot of illegality has been going in the sector; people are just shipping out raw minerals which has informed government policy or decision of banning the unprocessed minerals unprocessed mineral.

    “In the next six months, raw minerals would not be allowed to be exported because beneficiation is a priority to this government rather than just exportation of the raw minerals,” he said.

    He said any miner ready to invest in the sector must be willing to set up processing plants in host communities in order to create jobs for the people.

    Fayemi said whosoever that could not afford setting up a plant should collaborate with others.

    He said any miner ready to invest in the sector must be willing to set up their processing plants in host communities in order to create jobs for the people.

    He explained that the enforcement of the ban would not be done arbitrarily as the investor would be given time to establish their processing plants.

    The minister also called for the partnership of the state governments towards developing the sector.

    The minister said although, mining was in the exclusive legislative list of the country’s constitution, there was need for collaboration.

    He said there was no law precluding states with enormous resources from setting up mining companies and approaching the ministry for licenses to explore and exploit such resources.

    According to him, states could do it solely or in partnership with private investors depending on the technical capacity.

    Fayemi noted that given the fact that mining takes place in locations in states, there was need for partnership with host communities and the state to achieve results.

    He said this was necessary especially with the economic diversification drive of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He noted with concern that the right to issuance of consent given to host communities had been abused over the years, adding that the intervention of the state government was paramount.

    The minister said  state governments would be included in the affirmation of genuine land owners with regard to issuance of consent to miners as required by the law.

    He said:“We are a mineral rich country we are not mineral producing country, what we are doing in our road is to take few of the mineral so that we can say we have advantages.”

  • Fayemi promises to block leakages in minerals exportation

    Fayemi promises to block leakages in minerals exportation

    Mr. Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, has promised to block all leakages that smugglers used to export minerals out of the country.

    Fayemi made the promise while receiving both local and foreign miners in Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja.

    According to him, a large quantity of Gold is being taken out of the country without any record to show the volume and royalty paid through the relevant agencies in charge.

    He said Blue Sapphires located in Manbila Plateau were being smuggled to Cameroon on a daily basis without any record to show.

    On multiple monitoring of mining companies magazines by the security agencies, he promised to liaise with the National Security Adviser to avoid exploiting the operators.

    He said stakeholders in the sector had enumerated different challenges, adding that the ministry would proffer solutions.

    While decrying importation of marbles, tiles and ceramics available in Nigeria, he noted that Dangote also imported coals for its productions.

    He urged operators to encourage communities where they mined to achieve peaceful operations; there should also be a joint venture between the federal, state and local governments on mining.

    Mr Innocent Ezuma said the sector would play a crucial role in the country.

    He urged the minister to set up Solid Minerals Development Bank with adequate funding to support professional mining operators.

    Mr Boniface Owuike, Senior Manager, Public Affairs, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Nigeria Limited, called on the minister to set up a joint task force to monitor explosive magazine.

    Owuike said the company had been encountering different security agencies monitoring its explosive magazine.

    “The explosive magazine is where we keep explosives for our foreign business.’’ he said.

    Other stakeholders in attendance urged the ministry to assist operators with intervention funds, to address dormant licences, stop illegal mining and block 1,400 routes where the minerals were moved to final destinations.

    Some called on the ministry not to increase royalty as it would discourage miners; update the existing mineral map and set up a policy to protect local products and patronage.