The Nigerian Export Promotion Council, (NEPC), has projected that Nigeria’s non-oil export will increase by 40 percent following the establishment of an export trade house in Egypt.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s non-oil export stood at N1.4tn in 2021. Ezra Yakusak, executive director/CEO, NEPC, while informing that more trade houses are underway in other African countries, Asia and America, said the trade houses will further drive non-oil export.
According to him, the “export trade house” is an initiative of the Council to have a central location where Made-in Nigeria products can be shipped, displayed and distributed to different parts of the world.
Speaking during an “advocacy programme on leveraging on export trade house to boost export from Nigeria” on Tuesday in Abuja, Yakusak informed that the NEPC established the trade houses under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. He said, “The export trade house has been launched on 21st March, 2022 in its location Sadat City, Cairo Egypt and is expected to improve value addition on our export of products through cleaning, processing distribution and marketing.
“This in turn will lead to economies of scale, international foothold in finding new customers and managing currency risks. All of which gives an exporter an advantage over his counterparts. The official opening of the Export Trade House was a major event that attracted officials from both Nigerian and Egyptian governments.”
“The Council intends to establish the Export Trade Houses in different centres around the globe namely Cairo in Egypt, Nairobi in Kenya and Johannesburg in South Africa. Others are Hunan in China, Ottawa in Canada, Saudi Arabia and Lome Togo. These are to cover export activities in the various regions of the world being targeted by Nigeria,” he added.
The NEPC boss further said that the initiative will help Nigeria take maximum advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA). Other objectives of the trade house according to him would be to ; Enhance the visibility of made-in-Nigeria products outside the Nigerian shores; Reduce the cost of logistics on the Nigerian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); Increase Nigeria share in the targeted markets; Create employment for our teeming youths and Increase forex inflow into the Nigerian economy.
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“It is therefore on the basis of the launch of the Cairo Export Trade House, that the Council is today organizing this advocacy programme to sensitise all relevant stakeholders on the existence of that facility,” Yakusak noted.
Ghazwan Mousallati, the chief operating officer, Agriverdi Cairo, in his remarks noted that his partnership agreement with the NEPC is to ensure that intended goods for exportation are well packaged and presented to meet global standard
“There is a huge potential for the trade house to work if we continue to support the local traders. NEPC chose to partner with us in order to ensure that goods that are being shipped are paid for and no default in quality. The goods are well inspected to ensure that they do not damage the reputation of the Nigerian commodities,” he said.
