Nigeria’s
effort to diversify the economy seems to be yielding results with increased
revenue from the exportation of cashew nuts and other agricultural products. The
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, made this known during a presentation at the
National Economic Council meeting. According to him, the country’s agriculture
exports in the second quarter of the year are largely driven by the export of
cashew nuts which he said was worth N13.5 billion.
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Chief
Ogbeh was briefing the NEC on Nigeria’s “Strategic Export Initiatives” which is
a framework and action plan to grow and diversify the export of agro-products. The
NEC meeting which is chaired by the country’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has all the
state governors, including the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and
the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as members.
Nigeria
has been under pressure to diversify its economy because of the crash in oil
price. Also, the world is increasingly turning away from oil. The N13.5 billion
earnings from cashew nuts, according to the minister, represent 45.4 per cent
of the total agriculture exports and 1.37 per cent of the country’s total
exports for the quarter. Cashew nuts export to Vietnam was N12.16 billion, the
biggest so far, while India and Kazakhstan were N1.4 billion and N6.34 million
respectively.
Chief
Ogbeh informed the council that sesame seed exports in the second quarter was
N7.0 billion, representing 23 per cent of the total agriculture exports. The
major export destinations for sesame seed were Japan, N1.3 billion; India, N0.9
billion; Turkey, N0.9 billion; South Korea, N0.8 billion; and China, N0.6
billion.
Frozen
shrimps and prawns’ export was N1.6 billion, representing 9.6 per cent of the
total agriculture exports. The major export destinations were Netherlands, N1.5
billion; Belgium, N0.67 billion; United States, N0.22 billion; France, N0.17 billion;
and Spain, N87 million. Spain was a major export destination for Nigeria’s
soya-bean flour and meals, for the second quarter of the year; the export to
Spain alone was worth N2.1 billion, the Minister, Chief Ogbeh, said. N116.6
million worth of soya-bean flour and meal was exported to Ghana in West Africa,
while Senegal, Mauritania, and Germany were N72.9 million, N18.1 million and
N2.0 million respectively.
Other
agricultural exports within the second quarter are as follows: ginger, N663.7
million; flowers, N568.5 million; peanut kernels and other groundnuts, N481.3
million; and milk and cream powder, N282.4million.
Chief Ogbeh
said the total value of the trade in agricultural goods in the second quarter
of the year was N261.92 billion which is 4.60 per cent of the total trade in
the quarter. He told the council that agricultural exports had increased by 82
per cent in the first quarter of 2017, while export earnings from agricultural
goods stood at N30 billion for the same period. The discussions at the NEC
meeting focused mainly on how the country could significantly improve and drive
its non-oil export.
The
Nigerian Export Promotion Council made a presentation to the NEC on its “Zero
Oil Plan” – an ambitious plan to steer the nation’s economy completely away
from oil. “The ‘Zero oil Plan’ aims at earning at least
$30 billion from non-oil sources in the near to medium term as against the
current earnings of about $5 billion,” the federal government said in
the report of what transpired at the NEC meeting.
“The objectives of the ‘Zero Oil Plan’ is to add $150 billion to
Nigeria foreign reserves over the next 10 years, create 500,000 jobs, lift 10
million Nigerians out of poverty and integrate each State of the Federation
into the export value chain. The focus of the plan is on the export of the
following crops — Rice, Wheat, Corn, Palm Oil, Rubber, Hides and Skin, Sugar,
Soya beans and automotive parts among others,” the report said.
The
Vice President, Professor Osinbajo, also constituted a National Committee on
Export Promotion to review the ideas and suggestions tabled before the council.
Five ministers, including the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,
are members of the committee. The committee also has three governors – Jigawa,
Lagos and Ebonyi States – as well as the CBN, Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, and the Nigeria Export-Import Bank, NEXIM, as members. The
committee is to be chaired by the governor of Jigawa State and co-chaired by
the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelama.
The
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Barrister
Udoma Udo Udoma, in his presentation to the council, said that the earlier
projection was that the country would exit recession by the third quarter of
2017, but that the exit came three months earlier in the second quarter of the
year. Confidence was gradually returning to the Nigerian economy, Barrister
Udoma informed the council, adding that the recovery was driven ”largely by the
growth in agriculture, as well as manufacturing, crude oil and gas production,
solid minerals, financial services, and electric supply.”
Barrister
Udoma, who said that unemployment and underemployment remained a challenge for
the economy, cautioned that the economy was still deemed vulnerable to shocks.
He said focused policy implementation was required to sustain the recovery.
The
Vice President, Professor Osinbajo, was said to have expressed delight at the
discussions in the meeting. He assured that the federal government would work
together with the state governments to promote non-oil exports in the country.
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