The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority and the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts have pledged to keep enforcing regulations guiding operations within Free Trade Zones to guarantee quick and complete remittances into the Federation Account.
The conclusion was reached during an oversight visit by the House Committee to the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Free Zone Enterprise and the Lagos Free Zone in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
Speaking via a press statement, NEPZA’s Head of Corporate Communications, Martins Odeh, said that the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Dr Olufemi Ogunyemi, has reaffirmed NEPZA’s readiness to commit to accountability and regulatory compliance across all zones.
Olufemi stated that even though some of the functional zones and their enterprises have done decently well with remittances, NEPZA is now fully ready to enforce existing regulations to trigger total compliance across the board.
“The authority has again notified all operators of its readiness to strictly apply the regulation to achieve maximum compliance in this regard.
I would like to assure the committee of our resolve to continue to uphold the tenets of transparency, accountability, and fiscal probity in the management of the scheme,” he said.
He then praised the Lagos Free Zone and Dangote Refinery for being vital players in Nigeria’s industrial advancement, stressing the need for all Free Trade Zones in Nigeria to increase their efforts when it comes to meeting their obligations to the government.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Bamidele Salam, maintained that he is satisfied with the level of investment and industrial activities seen at the 2 zones, reiterating their significance in attracting both local and foreign investment.
He, however, mentioned that the Free Trade Zone scheme has to be refined from time to time to serve its main objective of boosting national economic growth and industrialisation.
“We are happy with what we have seen here so far. We recognise that both the Dangote Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE and the Lagos Free Zone are excellent examples of the successes made of the scheme by NEPZA. However, NEPZA must work harder to spread the scheme across other parts of the country for the sake of equity and balancing the industrialisation process.
The Free Trade Zones are designed to catalyse industrial development. While we are impressed with the operations here, it is imperative that all regulations guiding transparency and business conduct within the zones be fully activated to guarantee appropriate remittances to the Federation Account.
The committee understands that many of the zones are inactive for some reasons beyond us. The MD/CEO of NEPZA and his team should do something quickly to avoid leaving those operation licenses in the hands of non-free trade zone operators,” he added.
