Removal of price verification’ll lower operational costs -LCCI
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) recent decision to discontinue the Price Verification System (PVS) Portal will Lower operational costs, improved efficiency, enable businesses to offer more competitive prices, increase market share, and expand their export potential.
The Director General of LCCI, Dr Chinyere Almona, who disclosed this in a statement said removal of PVS would reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks and make Nigerian businesses to be more competitive on a global scale.
She said that the policy change aligns with the CBN’s mandate of maintaining price stability and promoting sustainable economic growth.
She stated that by removing the Price Verification Report requirement, businesses will experience reduced delays and lower operational costs and this will streamline the importation process, allowing timely access to essential inputs and fostering higher production levels in the manufacturing sector.
She said by reducing the cost of doing business and enhancing supply chain efficiency, the policy is expected to exert downward pressure on production costs, thereby curbing inflation.
Almona stated that with importers having more certainty about the pricing of the goods, they can plan better and reduce incidences of losses due to unexpected higher prices from such automated price verification systems.
The CBN introduced the Price Verification System Portal to ensure accurate pricing of goods and services for foreign exchange transactions aimed to prevent over-invoicing and under-invoicing.
She said while it intended to foster fair pricing in Nigeria’s import and export activities, the PVS Portal had inadvertently become an impediment to business operations, particularly for importers.
She said the mandatory Price Verification Report for completing Form ‘M’ added bureaucratic hurdles and operational inefficiencies that negatively impacted the business community.
