Stakeholders in Nigeria’s maritime sector have hailed the decision of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo to suspend the licensing of new Free Trade Zones and audit the existing ones.
In separate interviews with journalists, they called on the federal government to do a thorough review of existing FTZs, alleging further that the purpose of creating FTZs in the country had been defeated by few free trade zone managers, who make investments only on the pages of the newspapers. “It is a known fact that some of them are busy fighting their partners, scaring investors, shortchanging the federal government and making false claims of being champion of investments,” said one of the stakeholders, who spoke off the record.
“FTZ is a revenue generating issue on the part of NEPZA and FG. NEPZA does have a point though as lots of licenses have been issued in the past that have little or nothing to do with export processing.” He further stated that the law setting up the FTZ allowed the government to investigate their activities if they want.
“The purpose of setting up FTZs has been defeated. What the federal government wants to do now should have been done long ago. This is the only country in the world where people get license from government to operate ventures that are supposed to be economically viable and make money for government but they will shortchange the government and no one will go to jail.Adebayo recently said the federal government had suspended further issuance of licences for the operation of the FTZs.