Business Briefs
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THE Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, has said that the country’s non-oil export in 2014 dropped against the predictions that it would increase. Speaking at a forum for Strategic Agricultural Commodities, on Wednesday, September 2, Olusegun Awolowo, executive director, NEPC, said high cost of doing business in Nigeria remains a critical obstacle.
He explained that the country must expedite action to turn the tide to a favourable export regime. He said, “Nigeria’s non-oil export for the Year 2014 stood at $2.714 billion. This figure gave a decrease of 8.62 percent when compared to $2.970 billion which was recorded for the Year 2013 but an increase of 5.97 percent against year 2012 performance.
“The fall in export in the Year 2014 against 2013 could be attributed to the following: disruption in the implementation of the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) as a result of uncertainty in the utilisation of the Negotiable Duty Credit Certificates (NDCC) and the high cost of doing business in Nigeria as a result of high cost of borrowing. Inadequate infrastructural facilities such as power and expensive telecommunication facilities also contributed.”
On her part, Uju Hassan Baba, executive secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, NIPC, said for Nigeria to realise sustainable growth enabling sectors like power, transport and other infrastructure will improve productivity and competitiveness in the economy. She explained that such infrastructure is necessary for revamping critical sectors of the economy like industry, agriculture, services, in order to expand national output, diversify exports, cut imports and increase government income.
Hassan Baba stressed that NIPC will continue to strengthen capacity and promote agro commodity business that will be geared towards creating wealth and job opportunities. There were also presentations from the ministry of agriculture, the private sector and other key stakeholders.
— Sep 14, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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