In a bid to boost non-oil exports in the country, the Nigeria Export Promotion Council inaugurated a trade-house in Cairo, Egypt. This is an underrated initiative, which will be expanded to about seven other countries.
Considering the role micro-small and medium enterprises play in the development of Nigeria’s economy, the need for necessary support and funding to boost the Nation’s non-oil export cannot be over emphasized.
The NEPC Executive Director, Ezra Yakusak has always initiated advocacy programmes, says the trade-house will serve as a central location where made in Nigeria products could be shipped to different parts of the world.
This initiative comes at a time, when an urgent intervention is needed, especially as Nigeria’s oil revenue continues to drop due to theft, lack of maintenance and pipeline vandalism. The need to diversify our economy and increase inflows through the promotion of non-oil exports has been brought to the front-burner under the Ezra Yakusak led NEPC.
In light of these urgency , NEPC’s Public Private Partnership arrangement, which brought up the Egypt based trade-house, is a laudable initiative. Its goal is to provide value addition to made in Nigeria products.
The initiative is in furtherance to the fulfilment of the council’s mandate to promote the development and diversify Nigeria’s non-oil export base.
Ezra firmly believes that our survival as a Nation is based on non-oil export; this is the rationale behind the promotion of the Cairo-Nigeria bond. This is the first time this will be created in the history of Nigeria.
Nigerian exporters need to take advantage of the huge market in Egypt, to export their products across all sectors. NEPC will soon extend the initiative to Dubai, UAE, after signing an MoU with a form to launch an Export trade-house in Dubai.
The council is passionate about Nigerian goods reaching their specific markets and clients can easily use the trade house.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
