The effort by the present administration to increase revenues from other sources other than oil is on course, as the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), plans to increase non-oil export earnings to $30 billion in five years.
This was disclosed by the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NEPC, Mr. Segun Awolowo, in a visit to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, in Abuja.
“The plan is to build a non-oil economy through 11 strategic productssectors, and 21 countries for Nigerian goods and to grow non-oil foreign exchange from $2.7bn today, to $30bn in five years”
The Minister, according to a statement from the NEPC, announced plans to organise a National Agricultural Summit aimed at engaging the youth and also expressed confidence that the challenges surrounding total diversification from oil to non-oil were not insurmountable.
The Executive Director, informed the Minister that as part of its strategies to reposition the non-oil export sector, the NEPC had adopted several programmes, including the One-State-One-Product Programme which allows each state to develop a product where it has competitive edge and which can do well in the international market, the National Strategic Export Products consisting of 13 products in three categories.
Awolowo added that the three product categories include agro-industrial (palm oil, cocoa, cashew, sugar and rice), mining-related products (cement, iron ore/metals, auto parts/cars, aluminum), oil and gas industrial products (petroleum products, fertilizer/urea, petrochemical and methanol).
He said there was also the Nigerian Diaspora Export Programme, consisting of three major components; Cuisine beyond borders, establishment of Nigerian Heritage Houses, and encouraging Nigerians in the Diaspora to invest in the non-oil export sector.
Punch originally reported this story
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Published on: January 29, 2016