The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has said that the country exported non-oil products valued at $1.35 billion for the first half of 2012.

Executive Director, NEPC, Mr David Adulugba, made this known in an interview with the newsmen in Abuja.

Adulugba, however, said the figure represented about 10 per cent decline from the $1.50 billion recorded in the same period in 2011.

The NEPC boss attributed the decline to unrecorded exports, the fuel crisis and workers’ strike in January.

He put the value of non-oil export for the first and second quarters of the year at $660.1million and $686.2 million respectively as against $818.8 million and $676.2 million recorded for the same period in 2012.

The executive director said Nigeria exported goods worth $161.6 million dollars in January compared as against $307.2 million dollars in 2011.

Adulugba said the nation exported non-oil products worth $242.9 million in February 2012 compared to $273.6 million recorded in the same period in 2011.

He also said that Nigeria exported non-oil products worth $255.7 million and $220.6 million in March and April this year compared as against $237.9 million and $250.6 million recorded for 2011.

He said the country’s non-oil exports in May and June 2012 were $242.6 million and $223.1 million, respectively compared to $703.5 million and $222 million recorded in the same period in 2011.

According to Adulugba, the bulk of the exported products are cocoa and cocoa preparations, oil seeds, sesame seeds, edible fruits, nuts, citrus, tobacco, fish, shrimps and gum Arabic.

Others included recharge cards, cosmetics, footwear, textiles, confectioneries, insecticides, plastics, empty bottles, electric cables, food, beverages and noodles.

He expressed optimism that the agency would achieve its 40 percent target for non- oil export products before the end of the year in line with the key performance indicators (KPI).

“At the moment, we are working assiduously to translate where we were at $2.8 billion per annum to 40 percent ($3.92 billion). All sorts of strategies will be adopted to achieve the target within the regional market.’’

He noted with concern that the high incidence of unrecorded exports had been a major challenge to accurate reporting of the performance of the non-oil sector in the country.

To address the challenge, Adulugba said the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment was making moves to establish border markets at some strategic locations.

He pointed out that the country’s non-oil exports were dominated by raw commodities and few products with value addition.

“There is the need to step up the value chain, diversify from commodities and empower the small and medium scale enterprises through entrepreneurship development.”