Nigerian Government Set to Triple Non-oil Revenue in 18 Months
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to triple revenue generation in the non-oil sector in the next 18 months.
The Executive Director of NEPC, Nonye Ayeni, disclosed this while addressing exporters and other stakeholders in Kano.
She intimated the stakeholders on government’s readiness to address difficulties hindering the smooth promotion of export from Nigeria, adding that NEPC is prepared to encourage more players in the industry.
The new NEPC boss disclosed that the government was streamlining 15 agro-products from farm beat to market, thereby boosting the production and export viability. The products include sesame seed, peanut, cashew, sorghum, beans and hibiscus flowers.
Although Ayeni noted that the initiative did not intend to ignore other products, she revealed that special attention would be focused on the selected products.
According to her, the Federal Government is working to support the establishment of processing companies to add value to agro products, to enable job creation, diversification of the economy and boost of foreign earnings.
She added that actualisation of its core mandate on diversification of the economy, through promotion and development of non-oil products for export, resonated with the Renewed Hope agenda of the present administration.
On rejection of the country’s products abroad, the NEPC boss told the stakeholders that the government would soon establish laboratories as well as package and aggregation centres at Free Trade Zones (FTZs) to standardise products before export.
She said: “We are working to set up foundation factory and laboratory centres at our FTZs to address challenges of rejection and low quality of our products. We have set a target of 18 months to make a difference in the nation’s export.
“We must also begin to add value to our products before export and that is the agenda and mandate of the Federal Government we must hold tenaciously. We have taken note of all the challenges of the stakeholders and I can promise that we are going to try our best to resolve them.”
Exporters at the interactive session raised a series of concerns bordering on multiple taxation, cumbersome process and bottlenecks on product certification, as well as challenges of product rejection. The stakeholders applauded the planned establishment of laboratories, which they said would ease the difficulties faced at the port.
Guardian/Adukwu William
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