Nigeria’s non-oil export on the increase

Nigeria’s non-oil export on the increase

The Nigerian Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye has said that Nigeria’s non-oil export has increased eleven fold from 0.2 billion dollars in 2000 to 2.3 billion dollars in 2010.

Senator Martins-Kuye stated this in Abuja during the presentation of the report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the comprehensive review of the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) by the Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Abubakar Mohammad.

Non-oil products

The Minister noted that the prime of Nigeria’s non-oil exports consists of agro-allied products such as cocoa, leather, rubber; cotton-textiles, shrimps sesame seeds and gum Arabic, which have been growing consistently at a double digit rate.

He said that the EEG had a well calculated sound and unassailable policy in the area of export and forex-earning industrialization, with an objective to compensate export manufacturers for manufacturing cost increases thereby enhancing their products’ competitiveness in the export markets.

Matins-Kuye said: “the policy has succeeded to the point that Nigerians non-oil exports has been growing consistently at a double-digit rate in the last five years”

He noted that “the implementation at the initial stage faced various challenges which ranged from the corrupt and manipulative activities of a few export manufacturers to alleged institutional hindrances on the part of the Nigerian government implementation Agencies”.

Senator Kuye however stated that there was an urgent need for the report to be laid before the Federal Executive Council by way of a memorandum. In his words: “it is my hope and prayer that I am able to do this in the few days that I have to serve in the present administration.”

Economy diversification

Earlier, the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee, Dr. Abubakar Mohammad pointed out that the committee was charged with the responsibility of carrying out a comprehensive review of the Export Expansion Grant scheme in order to determine the continued desirability or otherwise of the scheme.

He noted that the EEG has been effective in diversification of Nigerian economy by way of increasing non-oil export, creating employment opportunities and adding value to primary commodities.

Dr. Muhammad said that the report contains 11 recommendations among which were; that the EEG should be sustained to diversify the Nigerian economy and improve the competitiveness of non-oil export products.

The Committee members were drawn from the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Federal Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nigeria Customs Service, Manufacturer Association of Nigeria and MAN Export Group

PR/HAUWA/Williams