NEPC says N5bn export development fund for SMEs ready

The N5bn budgeted to help Nigeria’s small businesses participate in the export market has been released. The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) which announced this in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said it is going round the zones of Nigeria to sensitise SMEs and potential exporters to access the fund.

NEPC also said the N5bn for SMEs is part of the first-ever N50bn export support fund created by the present administration to fund non-oil export drive.

Taju McJaja, an official from the Export Development Fund (EDF) unit of NEPC, while making a presentation to business groups in the South-South, said that most Nigerians are hardly aware of the various windows of support available at the NEPC and other government agencies to support the non-oil export business. He appealed to the South-South to take the matter with seriousness.

He said the FG decided to set aside N5bn because it was discovered that big corporations are the ones accessing the N50bn support fund.

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He however insisted that certain terms must be fulfilled to access the N5bn, saying the site would soon be open after sensitisation. Some of the conditions include being a limited liability company with a board, registration as an exporter with the NEPC, cost analysis of the area of support needed, a report showing how the support would help achieve export, and the outcome of the grant.

He said it is the board of the EDF that would decide how much a successful applicant would get. He pleaded with the teeming crowd of SMEs who came with samples of their products to help him to help them.

He warned that the only help he could give was to teach them to guidelines and nothing more, further warning that the persons processing the applications were few and must be assisted by doing the right thing.

He explained that the N5Bn is targeted at pre-shipment support to SMEs, saying there are other funds such as export expansion fund and post-shipment fund. He said the FG deemed it fit to create the first-ever fund to help people get onto export as a pre-shipment support fund.

He told the audience at Landmark Hotel at D-Line that the areas to attract funding include activities around training to perfect export business, research on types and grades for export, seminars, search trip, buyer-seller meetings both at home and abroad.

He warned applicants to be aware that inspectors would come around to see what the funds had achieved in the factories of successful applicants.

Earlier, the zonal coordinator of NEPC, Joe Itah, said the workshop was a special one designed by the EDF secretariat in Abuja to properly educate non-oil exporters especially SMEs on the workability of the EDF scheme as well as processes for application. He urged the exporters to tap into the scheme.

In his keynote address, Segun Awolowo, managing director/chief executive officer of NEPC, who was represented by a director, said the fund was evidence of the seriousness of the FG to diversify the economy and create a viable non-oil export economy.

“I must categorically state that even though this scheme has been in existence for a long period, it was far from being implemented and most often overlooked because of the simple reason of inadequate funds,” Awolowo said.

He expressed gratitude to the FG for reactivating the scheme and releasing all the fund earmarked for it. Thus, he beckoned on exporters and SMEs to follow the guidelines and access the fund to boost non-oil export.

NEPC officials present debunked insinuations that some zones in the country were privileged in getting all financial support to expand their businesses but that some zones were not lucky. They said it was lack of interest by some zones that should be blamed.