E-invoicing, e-evaluator may mar int’l trade, says expert

An economist and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf has called for scrapping of the e-invoice and e-evaluator schemes introduced by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying, it will worsen an already bad international trade transactions process.   According to Yusuf, the policy will increase transaction cost, entrench red tape, increase uncertainty, escalate business disruption, weaken investors’ confidence, and heighten corruption risk. He pointed out there is a strong correlation between red tape and corruption.

The CBN had on January 21 announced plans to commence operationalization of e-Valuator and e-Invoice; saying, all import and export operations will require the submission of an electronic invoice authenticated by the authorized dealer banks on the Nigeria single window portal – Trade Monitoring System (TRMS).

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According to the circular issued by the apex bank, the new regulation was primarily aimed at achieving accurate value from import and export items in and out of Nigeria

Yusuf who is the immediate past Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) submitted that, “The increasing incursion of the CBN into the trade policy space is an aberration in our economic management system and a serious cause for concern to the business community.  Issues of import valuation and classification are statutory functions of the Nigeria Customs Service, with the Finance Ministry as the supervising organ.

“The decision of the CBN to now undertake valuation and product price benchmarking of imports and exports is a duplication of the statutory responsibility of the Nigeria Customs Service. It will create an additional regulatory compliance burden and costs for the business community.”

He advised the CBN to collaborate with the Nigeria Customs to address any gaps in the valuation processes, rather than set up a parallel institutional framework. 

Yusuf also said over 80 per cent of the misconducts in foreign exchange handling are outcomes of the current distortions created by the current foreign exchange policy regime, especially the administrative fixing of the exchange rate.