The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has estimated that the informal export sector in Nigeria can generate N41 billion yearly.
Executive director of NEPC, Segun Awolowo, disclosed this during a recent stakeholders meeting hosted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, by the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) in collaboration with some technical partners from the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, South Africa and Spain.
The stakeholders, at the meeting, were seeking warehousing facilities, customs clearance and distribution of Nigerian products mainly agricultural edibles.
According to Awolowo, with the implementation of African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in January, 2021, the agreement will be a good advantage to the 22 products approved by the government to be exported from Nigeria informally.
“The country is blessed and yet we are still fixated on oil,” he said, adding, “We must put more money into non-oil exports. We spend millions of dollars drilling for oil and most times, we come up with nothing, but we do not invest in the non-oil sector.”
During the meeting, the group managing director/CEO, Mrs Olatokunbo Fagbemi, advised that NEPC should encourage Nigerians to standardise and export agricultural products, adding that, there is so much to benefit from it.
According to her, for agricultural products to be accepted abroad, it must not only be well processed but it must also be well packaged and labeled.
Buttressing the need for export to be paramount to grow the nation’s economy as well as lift people out of poverty, chief executive of FBO Global Logistics Limited, Mr Jimi Adebakin also charged government to encourage low income exporters. FBO, he said, is encouraging Nigerians to go into export of agricultural products.