Dr Ezra Yakusak is the Executive Director/ CEO of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC). In this interview, he speaks on how Nigeria earned the highest revenue from the non-oil sector since the establishment of the NEPC 47 years ago, among other sundry issues. Excerpt….
How would you assess Nigeria’s non-oil revenue performance so far?
Despite the harsh economic environment precipitated by the effect of COVID-19 and the global economic recession, it is encouraging to note that non-oil export performance for 2022 recorded a significant and highly impressive result with non-oil export earnings of US$ 4.820 billion recorded for the year under review.
This represented an increase of 39.91% over 2021. These figures represent data collated from the various pre-shipment inspection agents appointed by the federal government under the Pre-shipment Inspection Act, Cap P25 LFN 2004.
Worthy of note is that this result is the highest value ever achieved since the establishment of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council 47 years ago. This current result lends credence to the fact that the several export intervention programmes/projects initiated and executed by the council and other sister agencies during the year under review are gradually yielding the desired result.
What are the exported products that earned Nigeria this huge amount?
About 214 different products ranging from manufactured, semi-processed, solid minerals to raw agricultural products were exported in 2022.
Of these products exported, Urea/Fertiliser topped the list with 32.87%. The emergence of Urea/Fertilizer as the highest exported product in 2022 can be attributed to the Russia-Ukraine war which created an avenue for Nigeria’s Urea/Fertilizer to thrive. It is worth noting that our products were exported to 122 countries with Brazil recording the highest import value of 12.27%.
Similarly, 1,172 exporters participated with 31 issuing banks participating with Zenith Bank PLC processing the highest NXP values.
Also, 19 exit points were used with Apapa Port recording the highest tonnage.
Regrettably, of the top 10 importers of Nigerian products, no African/ECOWAS country made it to the top 10.
What is the NEPC doing to ensure that Nigeria begins intra-Africa trade?
We at the NEPC are working assiduously to change that trajectory, particularly in the wake of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA). The establishment of the Export Trade House Lome, the solo exhibition in Gambia, and participation at the Lome International Trade Fair are deliberate initiatives aimed at boosting non-oil export within the ECOWAS sub-region.
It may interest you to know that the non-oil export of Nigerian products is gradually diversifying from its traditional agriculture exports to semi-processed/manufactured products. This is buttressed by the fact that out of the product group exported, agricultural products formed 30.12 per cent, semi processed/manufactured products formed 36.61 per cent, precious stones formed 17.06 per cent while others took 13.21 per cent.
What are you doing to address several cases of export rejects of Nigerian products?
In 2022, the NEPC working with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment among other relevant MDAs embarked on a fact-finding mission to the United Kingdom (UK) as part of strategic efforts to address the issue of export rejection which constitutes a major constraint to the growth of the non-oil export sector.
At the end of that visit, an inter-agency meeting was held to debrief stakeholders on the outcome of the visit. The visit led to the intensification by NEPC of its various capacity-building programmes geared at addressing incessant issues of rejects. An inter-agency committee on export rejects was also constituted by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.
In the same vein, with the establishment of the Domestic Export Warehouse (DEW) two years ago, a total of 13 firms have been licensed to operate under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement with one aggregation centre. It is one of the key export intervention projects of the council that has been put in place to address the high level of rejections of Nigerian commodities in foreign markets.
I want to also announce that the Kaduna Inland Dry Port is ready and will be used to flag off the DEW project in the first quarter of 2023.
What are the current intervention programmes undertaken by the council?
As part of our interventions in the non-oil sector, the council established three (3) Export Trade Houses (ETHs) which are Cairo in Egypt, Lome in Togo and Nairobi in Kenya.
The ETHs are targeted at increasing Nigeria’s international market share and growth, enhancing the visibility of Nigerian products as well as increasing foreign exchange inflow and creating employment for the teaming youths.
Plans are also underway to establish other ETHs in China, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries. This project is being executed under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) scheme. About 50 companies have so far exported via the various Export Trade Houses.
Similarly, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) last year approved the sum of N375 billion to clear the backlogs of claims for 285 beneficiaries of the Export Expansion Grant scheme. The council has commenced the process for clearance of backlogs of claims for 2021 and 2022.
In compliance with this mandate, the NEPC carried out 227 capacity building programmes across Nigeria with a total number of 28,096 people benefitting from these programmes.
Also, one of the strategic tools for building the capacity of exporters particularly SMEs is the NEPC Export Competency Development Programme.
Since the introduction of the programme by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), the product base under this scheme has been expanded from the initial three products; cashew, sesame and cocoa to now include ginger and shea-butter in 2022.
The council in collaboration with the CBI is currently working to transit to a sustainable and high-quality production of ginger in Nigeria. In a bid to realise this objective, the NEPC and CBI provided market access for 17 SMEs in the ginger value chain through a Market Orientation Mission to the Netherlands during the year under review.
It may interest you to note that Nigeria ranks 3rd in the production of ginger after India and China.
There have been concerns about women’s participation in exports. Is NEPC doing anything about it?
We have taken the concerns of women in business and exports seriously over time. So far, 4,804 Nigerian women have registered with SheTrades Initiative from 2018 till date while 5,464 Nigerian women entrepreneurs have participated at programmes organised by the SheTrades in the Commonwealth Project and the NEPC Women in Export Development Programme.
In the same vein, different kinds of training were provided for corps members by the NEPC state offices nationwide. A total number of 17,117 youths benefited from this exercise. This will continue in many other states in 2023. It is our modest contribution to the efforts of the federal government at reducing unemployment among our youths.
What is the forecast for the non-oil sector in 2023?
I am optimistic that with the several export intervention programmes and projects that have already been executed and other on-going programmes, the expected performance of the sector in 2023 will likely surpass that of 2022.
I wish to reiterate that at the NEPC, we would do everything within our mandate to persuade and convince Nigerians, especially the youths, to embark on non-oil export instead of ‘japa’.
We therefore urge all Nigerians to join us as we continue the Export4Survival campaign with a view to building a virile economy driven by the non-oil export sector.
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