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BASHIR Wali, acting managing director of the Nigerian Export Import Bank, is a man who wants to make a difference both in the organisation he leads and in the country’s economic enclave. Wali, who has served NEXIM in various capacities since he joined the organisation in August 2009, is now using his wealth of experience to turn things around to improve on what he has inherited to build a strong and virile export financing sector in the country.
In doing this, he is leveraging on his experience in the banking sector where he worked for more than two decades. Prior his joining NEXIM, he also worked in various capacities in Afribank and left as a general manager. He is now among other things focusing to ensure the success of the two export financing programme introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria being managed by NEXIM to drive exportation activities in the country.
At an awareness programme cum press conference in Lagos, to sensitise the public about the N500 billion non-oil Export Stimulation Facility, ESF, and the N50 billon export credit Rediscounting and Refinancing Facility, RRF, Wali said improved export financing for exporters would enable them to upscale and expand their businesses and improve their competiveness.
The ever busy chief executive was magnanimous to step aside his sales pitch to a grand audience comprising bank executives, manufacturers and exporters on how they can easily assess the export financing facility to exclusively grant Realnews an interview.
Wali is a law graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and has a Masters in law from the University of Essex, England. Widely travelled, he has attended a lot of professional courses and seminars, including Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, Export Credit Meetings at OECD Conference Centre, Paris, November 2015, Afreximbank Annual Customer due diligence and Corporate Governance, ACDICOG, Forum Eden Island, Seychelles, Dubai, October 2015, Financial Oversight and Reporting, FITC, Dubai, U.A.E, May 2014, Professional Certificate in Foundations of Economic Development, International Centre for Parliamentary Studies, United kingdom, April 2014, Management Development for Senior Executives, Crown Agent, Dubai, U.A.E, December 2013,Executive Development Programme, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA, March 2013, Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme, Said Business School, October 2012, and the PWC’S Executive IFRS Retreat, PricewaterHouseCoopers, Dubai, September 2011.
He has also attended Executive Management Development Programme, Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, May 2011, Effective Management and Leadership Styles, Hemsleyfraser, London
March 2011,Study Tour Programme on SME Financing and Development, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca, Malaysia, March 2010, Euro money Seminar on International Financial Law, (The Summer School), Oxford University, United Kingdom August 1996 and All Company Secretaries, Legal Advisers and Corporate Registrars Forum, FITC, June 1993, Advanced Course on Practice and Procedure, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Lagos, June 1989, and National Workshop on Securities for Bank Lending: Documentation and Enforcement in Nigeria, Potomac Nigeria Limited, October 1987. He is a member of the Institute of Credit Administrators, ICA, Fellow 2013, The Institute of Directors Member 2010, The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, HCIB, Honorary Senior Member 2006, Nigerian Institute of Management, NIM, member 2003 and the Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria, BRIPAN, Fellow 2003.
In this interview with Maureen Chigbo, Realnews editor, Wali speaks about the new foreign exchange policy in Nigeria, the ban on importation of beans from Nigeria in Europe, the NEXIM he inherited, who can benefit from the new finance facilities among other thought provoking topical issues. Excerpts:
Realnews: Could you elaborate more on the N500 billion Non-Oil Export Stimulation Facility, ESF, and the Export Credit Rediscounting and Refinancing Facility, RRF, by N50 billion provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria and managed by the Nigerian Export Import Bank, NEXIM, which you talked about today. You said the facilities are being reintroduced, does it mean they did not work previously. What happened in the past and what is the new thing you are doing now to make it work?
Wali: If you recall the CBN and not only the CBN, I will rather say broadly the government had in the past introduced interventions schemes and funds for specific sectors. At a point in time there was the cassava initiative. There was the intervention scheme for the aviation sector. There was intervention scheme for the small and medium scale enterprises and so on. The structure of the funding arrangement, the processes is different from this current one. As I stated the N500 billion Non-oil Exports Stimulation fund is a new funding intervention. The N50 billion Rediscounting and Refinancing Facility had been in existence from the establishment of NEXIM in 1991. The initial amount in the RRF was N1.125 billion. So there has been a massive enhancement today. From N1.125 to N50 billion, that’s a quantum leap. The scheme has been rejigged and redesigned. The essence of it is to broaden the opportunities for entrepreneurs in the export sector to have a source of cheap funding. With cheap funding, the total cost of production will become lower. The pricing of the product will obviously be affected by that and it will enable them to compete in the international market against similar products from other countries. So that is what will enhance the prospects of this succeeding.
Realnews: We have always had problems with exportation of products abroad especially of commodities because of the quality. How will these facilities going to help to correct the problems.
Wali: The facility will help by providing opportunity for us to set up local packaging industries that will give support to the export sector. That is why the facility is targeted across the entire value chain of the export sector from raw commodities for export to processed material to the packaging sector to the evaluation. When we have local entrepreneurs that are willing to go into these, they will get it. I will give you an example. Most agricultural commodities in Nigeria now you find them packed in propylene bags ( bagco bag). For international export the standard bagging is that they should be packed in jute bags. Jute bags are from natural fibre not made from carbon or oil based extract. Internationally, jute bags are the recognised form of packaging for consumable items. If you package consumable items or commodities in propylene bags they will be disqualified. If you ship them when they get to the port of destination, they will reject them. That is just an example. That is why we see packaging as one of the challenges. Now, jute bags are generally imported from the Far East, from Bangladesh and other countries. A viable industry that was into jute bag manufacturing was NASCO industries. NASCO bagging industry collapsed. They are no longer producing jute bags. So for our agricultural commodities you have to import jute bag from Bangladesh. Then you package our own agricultural produce for the export market. Why can’t we produce jute bags here?
Realnews: Are we going to do it now, is this export facility targeting that?
Wali: Any entrepreneur willing to go into that field can access this fund because it is part of the value chain for export. Anybody who wants to produce packaging materials for the export of cashew nut in packaged and consumable form will access this funding. Anybody who is into the processing of cashew nut, rubber, cocoa, sesame seed, gum Arabic, ginger, soya beans, shea butter, palm kernel and so on locally, if it is for the export market and he is known to be export is legible to be considered.
Realnews: Recently, European countries banned beans export from Nigeria. What are your views on this and how is this new scheme going to help to get the ban lifted?
Wali: The ban on export of beans is based on the high level of a chemical known as afloxtoxin in the beans. This chemical is in form of powder that is used for storage purposes to avoid pests and insects from destroying the produce. There is a maximum requirement in some of the receiving countries. If the level of the afloxtoxins exceeds the requirement, they will reject the beans. For lack of awareness, our farmers may use materials, which disqualifies the products from export. And when this happens and a trader procures this material and does not go through the process of standards and quality control and certification there, inevitably when you ship the goods they will be rejected at the port of destination. And that is what has been happening. If there are rules and standards, exporters must abide by those rules and standards. And part of the effort of NEXIM and sister agencies charged with the responsibility is to heighten the awareness of the public about these issues.
Realnews: Manufacturers of goods for export are also complaining about the foreign exchange problem in the country now. How will this scheme solve this?
Wali: The flexible exchange rate has to an extent improved their position. For example, if your export is valued at $1 million dollars and you are repatriating the proceeds. You don’t have to repatriate it. In the past the policy was that you repatriate at the exchange rate of 198 to one dollar. Because of the flexibility in the rate you are repatriating at the exchange rate of N280. Now the difference with the parallel market and what I will now term as official rate is close. If you are on the ground level and you are moving above ground level, there is some progression.
Realnews: So are you saying the new exchange policy is a good?
Wali: For exporters it is favourable. If you talk to exporters they will say it is an improvement from what they were complaining about. And I think after sometime, the rates will have greater parity. They gap will close if not eliminated entirely.
Realnews: As the new acting managing director of NEXIM, what are your plans for the organisation?
Wali: Primarily, intensify marketing and improve on our role in the export sector. There is a lot to be done – improve awareness, improve access to funding both for NEXIM and for on lending to the export community and also providing easy access to these funds to entrepreneurs. One, it will result in improved non-oil export for the country. It will lead to boost job creation opportunities in the country. It will improve the economy of the nation and also the local economies where you have manufacturing or local industries located. So it is a win-win situation all through.
Realnews: You have been in the office, not very long but is it very challenging?
Wali: Well, for every responsibility there are challenges. What is life about? Life is all about challenges.
Realnews: What kind of NEXIM did you inherit?
Wali: A NEXIM that is going through change process just like Nigeria and a NEXIM which we are trying to improve on. So whenever, you move to effect the change, there is reaction, it is the law of nature. In physics, what they call the law of opposite reaction. That’s what it is and it takes sustained effort and perseverance before you can see light at the end of the tunnel. Change is not effected in a day.
Realnews: When you live office what will you like to be remembered for?
Wali: As somebody who has made a difference to the organsation and improved on it and then difference in the country by contributing to its economic revival and development.
— Jul 25, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
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