The managing director of the Nigeria Export Import Bank (NEXIM), Abba Bello has said that for Nigeria to be able to achieve the $1 trillion economy as planned by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-government, the country must begin to think differently in terms of its non-oil exports.
This is as he said NEXIM will discontinue financing for raw materials exports but will be focusing its support to value added exports that would earn the country more of the much needed foreign exchange.
Bello stated this on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Lagos office of the Nexhub, on Wednesday. Noting that the mandate of NEXIM is to promote export through financing, he said “promoting export is not necessarily growing the size of the export, but the value of the export.
“We are not just going to continue as we have been doing before, if we want to grow this economy to a $1trillion economy, we have to think differently. Thinking differently, is trying to get our export products up a notch all the time on the global value chain. We should try to extract more value from the same quantity of what we are exporting.
“So as we are increasing value, we are also increasing the size of the basket, introducing more products, improving on the quantity of each product and then putting processing in place so that we can start moving them up the global value chain.
“Cote d’ Ivorie earns about $3.5 billion dollars for cocoa exports and it produces about 45 per cent of global cocoa. Cocoa is a $140 billion business. So, if the biggest supplier of cocoa is earning just $3.5 billion when others are getting hundreds of billions of dollars, it tells you why it is important that we start moving on the global value chain for processing.
“We are still a financing organisation, but we are not going to continue financing dried ginger, cocoa beans. We want to start taking those products to cocoa butter, to spices to those that can attract more value and create jobs at the same time,” he stated.
On his part, the special assistant to the president on Export Expansion, Aliyu Bunu Sheriff, said by increasing non-oil exports “we do not only create valuable jobs, but also generate much needed foreign exchange and reduce our dependence on oil revenues among other things. The imperative for Nigeria now is to transition from a predominantly consumption based economy to one that is focused on production.
“We need to prioritise domestic production, add value to our locally manufactured goods and ensure that products made in Nigeria are recognised for their quality and competitiveness on the international stage. This shift is essential for the stabilisation and future prosperity of our economy. However, successful export strategies require a supportive business environment and both structure which is one of the reasons that Nigeria exporters are very crucial.”
