Bureaucratic burdens retard trade growth — Dr. Amakom

A major obstacle to growth in the trade sector is the existence of bureaucratic burdens suffocating small businesses in Nigeria.
This was contained in a paper presented by a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Development Studies, Dr. Uzochukwu Amakom, at a seminar for the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of Nigeria, Enugu campus, held recently.
Dr. Amakom said bureaucratic obstacles had so impeded trading through formal channels that informal activity accounted for up to 64 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP.
The researcher identified key bureaucratic burdens as many documentations for import and export; foreign exchange access challenge, corruption and unofficial taxation.
He also faulted, “The need for Nigerian businesses to produce at least nine documents in order to send an export shipment and at least 13 in order to bring in an import consignment.”