The Federal Government targets to grow earnings from Nigeria’s non-oil exports above the $2.6bn, which the country recorded in the first half of 2022.
It said this would be achieved in partnership with exporters across the country, describing non-oil exports as the future of Nigeria.
“Our aim is to expand the volume and value of non-oil exports in Nigeria beyond what we recorded in the past,” the Executive Director, Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Ezra Yakusak, told our correspondent during an interview in Abuja on Friday.
Yakusak spoke on the sidelines of a meeting with exporters tagged, “Export Clinic.” He was represented by the Director, Export Development and Incentives, NEPC, Gertrude Ukoanam.
In August, the NEPC said revenue generated from non-oil exports increased to $2.593bn from January to June 2022.
Yakusak had disclosed this while presenting the council’s 2022 half-year results in Abuja, as he noted that the figure represented the highest half-year record since 2018.
According to him, the report marked a 62.37 per cent increase compared to the $1.59bn recorded in the first half year of 2021.
But in the interview with our correspondent, the NEPC boss stated that the target of the Federal Government was to further grow the country’s non-oil exports due to the importance of the sector.
“Non-oil export is the future of Nigeria and we have to take advantage of this to grow our revenue as a nation beyond what we recorded in the past,” he stated.
He also stated that the NEPC was training newly registered exporters in a bid to eliminate the rejection of Nigeria’s exports by foreign countries.
The theme of the training was “Understanding Export Procedures, Documentation and Certification,” and it was organised to educate exporters on the fundamentals of successful export business.
Yakusak said findings by the council indicated that the rejection of Nigeria’s exports was due to the lack of knowledge by many indigenous exporters, stressing that this had to stop.
“For those who are having challenges, whose products are being rejected, it is because of the manner and how those products were exported,” the NEPC boss stated.
He said, “The mandate of the council is to promote the development of Nigeria’s non-oil export trade. It should be noted that non-oil export is very important to the government’s economic diversification agenda.
“And it is in tandem with the council’s current mantra – ‘Export4Survival’, an intensive strategy to expand the volume and value of non-oil exports from Nigeria for increased foreign exchange earnings, employment generation and economic growth.”
He said the Export Clinic marked the first step in the desire of the NEPC to nurture and mentor newly registered exporters by providing necessary capacity and technical support in terms of export procedures, documentation and certification processes for seamless export business ventures.
