The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines
and Agriculture (NACCIMA) arm of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) has called for
the adoption of Nigeria’s “Naira” as the single currency for ECOWAS sub region.
1000 naira notesNACCIMA said that for this to happen, first, the Naira should
be revalued for it to be at par with the American dollar as it was in the 80s.
In a chat with Vanguard, John Isemede, NACCIMA Director General, pointed out
that the much talked about economic integration has been elusive for years
because the requirements for the convergence can’t be met by the participating
countries.
He argued for instance, “our import cultures have not allowed
economic integration and taking orders from other people to run our own
country. Again, how can we achieve the economic bloc? We are talking of
the Common External Tariff which will take off next year; we are a sub region and
not a custom union. For us to be a custom union, incentives, VAT, import
duties, tariff and non-tariff must be the same thing. Today, VAT in Nigeria is
5 percent, Benin Republic 20 percent; Ghana 17 percent and if we now have all
these, why will the borders not be porous and smuggling not be booming because
there is a big advantage of routing your goods through Nigeria at 5 percent.
Vanguard Newspaper
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