Africa’s most populous nation is making a move to boost its non oil exports amid a worsening foreign exchange crisis.
Jumoke Oduwole, Nigeria’s minister of industry, trade and investment made this known during her visit to France.
“We’re trying to push our exports,” said Oduwole, who was among several others welcomed to France by President Emmanuel Macron alongside President Bola Tinubu on a two-day economic and diplomatic visit.
“Nigeria is France’s biggest trading partner in Africa and France is Nigeria’s biggest trading partner in the EU,” she noted.
“We’re just looking at where the synergies are. We’re clear on what our requests are. France is an export-led economy which is the direction that Nigeria wants to go,” the trade minister said.
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In the last four years, the imports from France to Nigeria slowed, dropping from $1.24 billion in 2018 to $845 million in 2022, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
However, during this period, exports from Nigeria to France rose, moving from $2.97 billion in 2021 to $4.26 billion in 2023. The main export products were crude petroleum, petroleum gas, and soybean meal.
Oduwole stated that investments from Africa bolstered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), France and the rest of the EU will help draw attention to Nigeria’s economy and boost the standard of local production for exports.
“We want to have Market access into the EU,” she said. “[By] inviting French companies to come and set up in Nigeria, we export into other markets, helping with standards and export-led trade facilitation,” she added.
If all goes according to plan, Nigeria is expected to enjoy bigger foreign direct investments and a foreign exchange supply that it “desperately” needs, she said.
Wale Edun, Nigeria’s finance minister, speaking also during the visit called for value addition in the country’s domestic production.
“These attempts and this opportunity to add value to Nigerian domestic production is critical for foreign direct investors who, as much as possible, assuming that they even import the machinery would like to have domestic sourcing of raw materials,” he said.
The minister is confident in recent reforms, particularly the foreign exchange market liberalization which has market pricing of foreign exchange and could make supply easier “providing for entry and exit of foreign investors, dividends and even their Capital if they so wish,” he said.
“On that basis we now have a basis for manufactured exports. We have the African Continental trade agreement that is facilitating continental trade in Africa and so Nigeria is now a competitive place in which to produce for export of manufactures across West Africa across the whole of Africa,” Edun noted.
Though Nigeria seems to be doing well in exports, much of it still leans on the willingness of other countries to purchase crude. The country still imports many of its basic supplies, raising questions about its ability to sustain itself through local production.
“The Nigerian economy is quite diverse, what is not diverse is our foreign exchange earnings. So we basically export mainly crude oil,” Oduwole told French media.
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“What we’re doing is prioritising agriculture, export-led. We need to work on market access around the continent and to other markets like the EU. That’s where French companies come in.”
Oduwole noted that Nigeria possesses the land for the prosperity of agro-businesses and will prioritise multiplying the export quality of locally grown food products including cocoa, lemon products, sesame seeds and soy.
“So a lot of exports that the world wants. We need to scale all that,” she said. “We are doing well in services. We’re very strong in the creative sector. Those are services that can easily be exported,” the minister added.
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