NEPC, NBS Sign MoU On Cross-border Trade Tracking

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council and the National Bureau of Statistics have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cross-border trade tracking.

The move is to checkmate the up to $31.8m in cross-border trade involving Nigeria, that has remained unaccounted for.

The two agencies have thus signed an agreement Abuja, to establish a framework for capturing export data from informal trade routes across the country.

A statement by the NEPC Head of Corporate Communications, Ndubueze Okeke, credits the Executive Director of NEPC, Nonye Ayeni, as saying that informal cross-border trade remained a vital part of the economy that supports livelihoods, strengthens regional supply chains, and contributes significantly to national and continental economic resilience.

She said the NEPC offices in such states as Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Lagos, Ogun, and Adamawa recorded high levels of undocumented export activities.

According to her, 1.6 million bags of onions for example, left the country through informal trade routes without any official record, transactions which the council’s state offices were able to  track during routine monitoring exercises.

Expressing optimism that the collaboration with the NBS would help bridge the data gap in Nigeria’s trade statistics and improve policy planning for non-oil exports, she added:

“Existing trade data primarily capture activities within the formal sector, offering limited visibility into informal export trade transactions, despite their significant volume and economic impact.

“In 2024, formal export trade records indicate that 7.291 million metric tonnes of non-oil products valued at $5.456bn were exported from Nigeria. This figure excludes informal export trade data,” she added.

According to her, reports from the National Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, reveal that over 1.6 million bags worth of the commodity were traded informally to neighbouring countries such as Ghana, Cote D Ivoire, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, and Niger Republic.

“It weakens Nigeria’s voice in regional and global trade negotiations, it denies informal traders the recognition and support they need to thrive as well as diminishes Nigeria’s economic potential, especially the vital contributions of women, youth, and MSMES”.

Ayeni explained that the collaboration between the Council and the NBS was borne out of the desire to correct the imbalance and capture the full spectrum of Nigeria’s export trade activity.

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Responding, the Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran noted that the meeting of key players from national and sub-national agencies, regional institutions, international development partners, and the organised private sector, reflects the strong spirit of collaboration.

Such a collaboration, he added was necessary to capturing and integrating data from informal trade, a challenge he described as one of the most pressing in Nigeria’s trade data architecture.

“These are not just gaps in data; rather, they represent gaps in our understanding of economic life and the well-being of millions of Nigerians who engage in these activities daily”, he added.