The Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC is set to launch Export 774 programme which is targeted at identifying products in all the 774 Local Governments Areas in the country and their potentials for export.
The Director General of NEPC Dr Ezra Yakusak said this during the Annual Conference of the Abuja Commerce and Industry Correspondent Association of Nigeria with the theme; “The Role of Non-oil Sector Towards Economic Diversification, GDP Growth”. Abuja Nigeria’s capital.
While speaking on the sub-theme ‘Export For Survival: Exploring Nigeria’s New Gateway to Generating FDIs, Economic Growth’ prof. Yakusak urged manufacturers to export value added products instead of raw materials in order to create employment and attract foreign direct investment.
“One of the key thrust of the Export4Survival campaign is value addition of our product, though we persuade people to export every product but we actually subtly discouragethe export of raw commodities.” He said
“We produce 770 metric tones of cashew, cocoa and sesame seeds 12 percent of it is consumed locally 758metric tones are exported annually unfortunately only 16.8 percent is processed the rest are exported raw, what that means is that we are just exporting jobs because if you are going to add value on any product, you must employ people, you must get some kind of machinery you can never add value or your own”.
He also called on manufacturers to improve on their levels of packaging while considering tha standard and preference of the of the destination country.
“Our products are good, well processed, but our packaging is so poor and packaging is very key to export, right now we’re trying to bring up rule that for you to export we must see your level of packaging and okay it.” Prof. Yakusak said.
“Products have been rejected because of the poor packaging not because the product are not good but because the packaging is terrible. In packaging, you must also be sensitive to the importing environment.”
The NEPC boss disclosed that the council which currently has at least six trade houses in different countries will within this month, launch a trade house in China.
The Chairman of the Abuja Commerce and Industry Correspondent Association of Nigeria, Mr Ifeanyi Onub said the association is optimistic about the nation’s economy because recent developments have shown the federal government’s drive for economic diversification from the oil to the non-oil sectors, given the volatile nature of crude oil prices is yielding the desired results.
Mr Onuba said, “Last month, the National Bureau of Statistics released the Gross Domestic Products report for the fourth quarter of 2022, showing a 3.52 per cent growth year-on-year in Q4 2022, as against the third quarter growth rate of 2.25 per cent.”
“The growth rate was primarily driven by the non-oil sector, reflecting gains associated with the sturdy telecommunications sub-sector’s performance, seasonality effect in agriculture, although limited by flooding incidents, manufacturing sector’s return to growth, and improved credit to the private sector,” he added.
