Nigeria Records $426.5m In Non-Oil Exports

The hope for a bumper
revenue earning and foreign exchange accumulated by the Federal Government this year due to a 12.5 per cent leap in total value of not oil export recorded in February 2014 has been achieved.
According to a recent provisional data released by the Central Bank OF Nigeria, (CBN) and made available to The Tide source, which  covers the nation’s economic performance for the month of February 2014, total non-oil export was put at $426.46 million, representing 12.5 per cent increase above the preceeding month.
The source said the development was said to reflect to a large extent, 32.2 and 5.6 per cent increase in manufacturing and industrial sectors respectively.
A sectorial breakdown indicates that proceeds from agriculture, minerals, and food products sub-sectors stood at $246.12m, $121.82m, $33.79m and $7.5m, respectively.
However, the report said the transport sector recorded no receipts under the review month but said that the shares of agriculture, minerals and food products sub-sectors in non-oil export proceeds, among others were 57.7, 28.6, 7.9, 4.1 and 1.7 per cent respectively.
Financial analysts say that if the tempo of non-oil exports especially, agriculture was sustained till the end of 2014, then Nigeria would witness a reduction in the demand for foreign exchange at the various segments of the market.
The analysts further said the scenario would also ginger higher yields from non-oil export ativities that would help shore-up foreign exchange.
In Nigeria, non-oil exports include, cocoa, cashew, fried snail, garri, gallstones, ginger, dried vegetables, cassava chips/leaves/roots, bones, sesame seeds, pepper, honey, charcoal, spices, various manufactured or processed products and intermediate goods.
The 2013 non-oil exports data obtained from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) showed that the total earnings by end of 2013 was $2.97 billion.