NEPC: Growing the non-oil sector to boost forex

By Sola Oluwole Ibiyinka

Efforts to diversily Nigeria’s economy from oil is currently receiving remarkable attention from the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, NEPC.

It is reflective of what the agencies of government are doing to complement the Federal Government’s plans for a robust economy.

While the poor state of the economy ensured that other agencies keyed into the efforts at reviving the economy, it is a first-line charge for NEPC.

Upon being established 41 years ago, the Council was charged with the responsibility of

stimulating, developing and promoting non-oil activities that would increase Nigeria’s visibility in the world market.

Accordingly, the pursuant of this mandate, and other goals inherent in it, has seen NEPC embarking on so many projects since the inception of this administration. The programmes were in addition to those it had embarked upon under the leadership of its Executive Director, Mr. Según Awolowo.

The programmes embarked upon by the Council include Zero Oil Plan Initiative, ZOPI, Women in Export Development, Capacity Building for Exports, Cashew Processing for Export, Strategic Partnership with Los Angeles University and CBI Technical Support for Promotion of Nigeria’s Exports.

NEPC is working towards boosting the supply of foreign exchange from the non-oil sector by driving growth in five key areas namely: Concentration on generating US$30billion from 11 selected strategic export products, exploring the competencies, comparative and competitive advantages of States and Zones through the One State One Product programme, domestic sourcing of products through the launch of first National Export Aggregator and Strengthening of Export Development Fund ,EDF, scheme, and prioritization of Nigerian exports to 22 newly targeted Export destinations.

The aims of the programmes include growing of non-oil foreign exchange from $2.7 billion today to $30 billion, diversification of export base from raw materials to realization of $706 million non-oil export to West Africa Sub-region by 2017, increasing non-oil export as a percentage of total export from 5 percent to 20 percent by 2018, increasing participation of SMEs in export trade by 50 percent and creation of 1.5 million new jobs in the SME sector by 2020.

Also, NEPC and the Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) Netherlands are administering a capacity building programme for the promotion of non-oil exports and improved access to European Union markets.

This initiative, it was gathered, is part of an effort to bring about economic empowerment of Nigerians with the aim of enabling Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SME) export to the EU market.

Indeed, industry analysts found this function to be in line with the present government’s policy on poverty reduction and job creation, especially in the area of inclusive growth for women.

Pilot products

NEPC’s collaboration with CBI is to enhance knowledge and implement capacity building as an outcome of needs analysis that will focus on three sectors which are Sesame Seed, Cocoa and Cashew nut as pilot products.

The strategy would also be applied in developing other products.

The programme is already training NEPC Coaches and a group of objectively selected companies drawn from the Sesame Seed, Cocoa and Cashew sub-sectors who are focused on improving the contribution of the non-oil export sector to Nigeria’s economy.

However, the emphasis is on training farmers, processors and exporters as a whole in the entire products value-chain with a view to improving productivity, including establishing a sustainable local processing capacity, for the purposes of exports.

On the boosting of cashew production for export, it was learnt that NEPC facilitated a credit facility for Foodpro, an Ilorin based cashew manufacturing company, to procure cutting-edge equipment and machines for cashew processing.

The aim is to make the product competitive in the international market.

NEPC had, in 2016, spearheaded the participation of Nigerian cashew processors to the World Cashew Convention in Singapore to expose stakeholders to new technologies which would result in value addition, inclusive growth and job creation.

Interestingly, it was learnt that plans have been concluded for Innoson Motors Limited to export 400 vehicles to Mali following the company’s readiness to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Taxi Plus and VIP, two major transport companies based in Mali, for use in the expansion of transport business in that country.

This, seen as a key achievement, is part of the outcome of the “Made-in-Nigeria ProductsExhibition” held in Bamako.

The Exhibition was facilitated by NEPC in collaboration with Ginco Group, a Nigerian firm based in Mali, to showcase Nigeria’s exportable products.

With the support of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, NEPC and ITC launched the ‘SheTrades’ initiative during the Women in Export Stakeholders Forum and Exhibition in Abuja on July 13, 2016.

The programme seeks to connect one million women entrepreneurs globally by 2020.

It is believed that through the forum, Nigerian women will be established as part of the ongoing efforts to empower women to drive trade-led development.

Additional checks showed that within the period under review, the Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding ,MoU, with the Applied Management Research Team 10 (AMR T10) of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to conduct a study on how to increase exports from Nigeria to the United States.

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