Emefiele

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released guidelines for the newly-introduced electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) and evaluator for exporters and importers, saying the process commences on February 1, 2022. The new regulation, it stated, is aimed at determining the accurate value for goods leaving the country or otherwise. The migration was announced in August, last year. At the weekend, the apex bank said the electronic process, which replaces the hard copy, would commence on February 1. It added that the invoice must be authenticated by the authorised dealer banks. This was disclosed in a circular signed by the Director, Trade and Exchange Department, Dr. O. S. Nnaji, and addressed to authorised dealers and the general public. “Effective February 1, 2022, all import and export operations will require the submission of an electronic invoice authenticated by the authorised dealer banks on the Nigeria single-window portal – Trade Monitoring System. “This new regulation is primarily aimed at achieving accurate value from import and export items in and out of Nigeria… No importer/exporter may effect payment to the credit of any foreign supplier unless the electronic invoice has been authenticated by authorised dealer banks presented together with the relevant document for payments,” the document said.