NEPC, Centre Partner To Boost Non-Oil Exports

The Centre for Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CPI), is collaborating with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), in building capacity of exporters to further boost the contribution of non-oil exports to the Nigerian community.
In a mailed statement made available to The Tide, the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of NEPC, Olusegun Awolowo, while speaking at a two-day National Strategic Conference in Abuja, recently, said the collaboration was aimed at providing technical support to develop Nigeria’s capacity to export products to the European Union market.
“Nigeria and the Netherlands have been trading partners for decades even as the EU has consistently been Nigeria’s largest trading partner.
To rescue the economy, therefore, Awolowo said the NEPC had developed the Zero-Oil Plan, which identifies, “priority products sectors, out of which CBI is focusing on three for the programme, namely, cocoa, cashew and sesame.
He acknowledged the impact and contributions of CBI to economies of developing countries.
The products selection is based on the Export Potential Indicator of the International Trade Centre (ITC), to know where demand is at present in the EU as well as the unused potential of Nigeria.
The Senior Programme Manager East and Southern Africa CBI and leader of the team, Patrick Gouka said that the export coaching programme was intended to bring about economic empowerment of Nigerians through capacity building that would enhance productivity in the export sector.
Emphasis on the programme will be on value – addition, quality, packaging and increased production for chosen commodities in order to gain premium pricing at the international market.
“The programme will be implemented in stages: the Strategic Conference, Competences Development and Trade Awareness Mission to the EU.
“It covers capacity building for NEPC, Exporters, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and trade support institutions and will take care of market research, market information, trade channels and price development, amongst others”, he said.