NEPC charges Nigerian exporters to prioritize quality

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has called on exporters to meet market demands by prioritizing product quality, as part of efforts to boost the nation’s non-oil export sector.

Executive Director and Chief Executive officer NEPC made the call while presenting a paper titled, ‘Overview of Exportable products and markets’, organised by Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM) held at Gumel, Jigawa State.

Represented by Yusuf Ismail Ahmad, NEPC said the major problem that hindered the exportation of goods from Nigeria is inability to provide the market with what it demanded for.

He said Nigeria has a reservoir of untapped mineral assets with about 44 exploitable minerals in commercial quality.

According to him, “Some of the major challenges in exportation in Nigeria including, poor transportation and logistics, compliance to International standards, higher interest rates, lack of inactive incentive scheme.

“Others are lack of synergy among stakeholders in the Non-oil export financing value chain, poor understanding of Non-oil and oil export processes by commercial banks as well as lack of awareness of the various Non-oil and export financing scheme and services available.”

He said the Council is collaborating with relevant agencies and parastatals to create awareness, build capacity for agricultural practices, labelling and packaging and ensure adherence to quality and standard of exports in the global market.

Ahmad noted that the efforts helped in the increase in exportation by 6.26 percent against the figures recorded in 2023.

The Managing Director Nigerian -Export Import Bank, Mr Abba Bello said the aim of the program is to create awareness among Jigawa residents on the opportunities and potentialities available for exporting non-oil goods to other countries.

He noted that it’s unfortunate that, despite the agricultural potentials in the state, Jigawa is still counted among the major poverty stricken states in Nigeria.

He urged Jigawa citizens to take advantage of different facilities in NEXIM bank to commence exporting agricultural products such as sesame seed and hibiscus that are largely produced in the state.