Against the backdrop of the falling
global oil prices which have led to sharp drop in Nigeria’s revenue, the
Federal Government has commenced plans to export commodities to France,
United Kingdom, Netherlands and a host of other countries in a bid to
diversify the economy.
The Director-General, Nigerian Export
Promotion Council, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, who made the disclosure in an
exclusive interview with our correspondent, said a number of products
had been added to the nation’s export commodity list.
He said some of the new products, which
were added to the list last year, included soya meal, vegetable tanning
extracts, brown beans, bill boards and slug catcher.
Others are carbon dioxide gas, aluminum sulphate, palm juice, barite, Heineken beer and strawberry filling.
Awolowo said that apart from France,
Netherlands and the United Kingdom, other primary markets for the new
products were Guinea, South Korea, Benin Republic, Ghana, Democratic
Republic of Congo and Greece.
According to him, some non-traditional
products including services exports such as finance, arts and
entertainment like Nollywood home videos, horticulture, aqua culture and
Nigerian cuisine have also been added to the list.
“The vigorous advocacy and promotion
campaigns recently embarked upon by the council, coupled with the
enterprise demonstrated by non-oil exporters, have made this possible,”
Awolowo said.
The NEPC had in 2013 introduced new
products including educational books, robusta coffee, double-folded dust
sheets, ice making machines, mica muscovite, leather furniture,
high-density polyethylene, aluminium ingots, reduced iron and iron
pellets, garments and yam to the export list.
The NEPC director-general noted that the
country’s exports were no longer limited to the traditional markets of
Europe, especially the UK, adding that there was a steady growth in
non-oil exports.
He said, “Diversification through
non-oil exports remains the new and only avenue for developing the
economy and achieving prosperity as oil has become unreliable. It is in
pursuit of this goal that the Federal Government has now marked out 13
National Strategic Export Products that are meant to replace oil and
shore up the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
“This is part of the spirited moves by
the government towards reviving the dwindling national economy with
emphasis on rapid growth of the non-oil sector for exports. In this
regards, 13 National Strategic Export Products in three categories are
now in focus. These include agro industrial products such as palm oil,
cocoa, cashew, sugar and rice; mining related products such as cement,
iron ore and metals, auto parts and cars, aluminium and oil and gas; and
industrial products including petroleum products, fertilizer and urea,
petrochemical and methanol.”
According to Awolowo, the country needs
to join the league of other successful nations but with investment in
the development of the non-oil sector.
“The upswing in the United Arab
Emirates’ economy and its transformation have been made possible through
the investment of revenues derived from oil to other sectors of the
economy,” he said.
He listed some of activities that were
critical to the successful diversification of the economy as
macro-economic stability, management of supply constraints, provision of
adequate pre and post-export incentive, and the revitalisation of
export processing zones which are already at various stages of
implementation.
The President, Nigerian Association of
Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed
Abubakar, said that diversifying the economy was the pathway to
achieving economic stability and would help the nation to realise its
long-term socio-economic development goals.
He however said that an improved
collaboration between the public and private sectors and government’s
sincerity in facilitating a private sector-led economy, would enable the
country to maximally utilise its abundant resources.
“Government should provide a climate for
a profitable and flourishing business enterprise. In this regard, the
first and most critical area of attention is to intensify its
transformation agenda on infrastructure. With this, cost of production
will reduce, unit prices will reduce and our goods will be able to
compete internationally,” he said.
He added that in boosting non-oil
export, the government needed to address other areas that have raise the
cost of doing business.
These, he said, included excessive tax,
high cost of compliance with government regulations and extortion and
harassment of companies by regulatory agencies.
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