NEPC registration for exporters: the certificate you must have
NEPC registration gives you the exporter's certificate, the base licence for exporting from Nigeria. How to do it online, how long it takes, what it misses.
NEPC registration is the first door in Nigerian exporting, and there is no way round it. Without the exporter's certificate from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council you cannot complete Form NXP at your bank, which means you cannot legally export commercially, which means the rest of the plan is theoretical. It is also, by the standards of Nigerian officialdom, refreshingly quick. This page is what it is, how to get it, and the three things people wrongly assume it covers.
What is the NEPC exporter's certificate? #
It is the registration that identifies you to the Nigerian government as a commercial exporter. The NEPC lists it first among the export documents on its own procedures page, and it is the document your bank will want before processing anything.
It is a registration, not a permit for a particular product. It says you are an exporter. It does not say what you may export, which is a separate question governed by Nigeria's prohibition list and by whatever the destination country admits.
What you need before you apply #
- A registered company at the CAC. Exporting commercially is a company activity. A business name may be accepted for some purposes but a limited company is the normal form and the one banks prefer for trade finance.
- A tax identification number.
- An export domiciliary account at a Nigerian bank, because that is where the proceeds must land.
- Company documents: certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles, and the details of the directors.
Our step by step export guide puts these in order with everything else.
How to register #
Registration is online, on the NEPC's e-registration portal for exporters. You create an account, complete the exporter profile, upload the company documents and pay.
The portal states that certificates are issued within one working day after payment is confirmed, provided the documentation is complete. That is the published position, and the conditional clause is doing the work: incomplete uploads are where delays come from.
What does it cost? #
We could not retrieve the NEPC's own published fee schedule, and we are not going to print a figure as fact that we could not verify at source. A Nigerian trade services site quotes ₦13,500 for a new certificate, ₦7,500 for renewal and ₦12,500 for a late renewal after three months, with an initial validity of two years and annual renewal thereafter. Treat those as indicative and confirm on the portal at the point of payment, because that is the only number that matters.
What we can say is that this is not an expensive step. The expensive steps come later, in quality control and in the certificates that attach to a particular consignment.
Three things NEPC registration does not do #
This is where new exporters lose time, so read carefully.
It does not give your product access to China. China admits agricultural products through quarantine protocols with the exporting country, and separately requires overseas food facilities to be registered with Chinese customs. Our what China buys page sets out which Nigerian products have confirmed access and which are still only talked about.
It is not the same as GACC registration. Confusingly, NEPC is also Nigeria's competent authority for registering food facilities with Chinese customs, a role it took on in November 2022. That is a separate process, through the Chinese CIFER system, and having an exporter's certificate does not mean your facility is registered. Our GACC page explains the difference.
It does not override the export prohibition list. Nigeria bans the export of maize, rough or sawn timber, raw hides and skins, scrap metals, unprocessed rubber latex, artifacts and antiquities, and endangered species products, per the official trade portal. A certificate does not change that. Our page on what Nigeria will not let you export goes through the list.
What NEPC can also do for you #
Beyond the certificate, the council is the body to approach for two things that matter to a China exporter.
The first is the GACC facility registration described above. If your product needs it, NEPC is your route.
The second is the question of market access itself. If you cannot tell whether your crop has access to China, NEPC is the authority that would know, and the question is worth an email before you buy a season's crop. Our sesame page explains why that particular question is unresolved for several of Nigeria's best known crops.
After the certificate #
The sequence from there:
- Facility registration with Chinese customs if you are exporting food
- A buyer, checked before you ship, covered on our finding buyers page
- Terms that pay you, covered on our getting paid page
- Form NXP at your bank, which is where the Central Bank starts counting the 180 days you have to bring the money home
- The consignment documents: certificate of origin, phytosanitary certificate, clean certificate of inspection, bill of lading
Our documents page has all of them with who issues each.
The certificate itself takes a day. Everything after it takes as long as it takes, and the exporters who move quickly are the ones who did the registrations before they found the buyer rather than after.
Start here, it takes about two minutes
Tell us what you need. A person from the ChinaBridge desk will reply on WhatsApp, usually the same working day.
Buying, selling, shipping, a visa or the paperwork, it is the same desk. Nothing is payable to open a file, and nothing is due until you have agreed a plan in writing.
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