NEPC constitutes inter-agency committee to boost non-oil export

Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has constituted an inter-agency committee with the directive to achieve zero rejection of Nigeria’s non-oil export products and improve revenue earnings for the government.

This is geared towards addressing the recurring issue of rejection of Nigerian goods in international markets.

Available records have shown that Nigeria compared with several other countries in the ECOWAS region is facing the most severe cases of rejection of exported goods with relevant economic consequences.

The European Union (EU), it would be noted, restricted until 2016, the importation of beans from Nigeria due to failure to comply with SPS and food safety measures for gaining access to the EU markets.

But, Olusegun Awolowo, executive secretary, NEPC, at the inauguration of the committee on Tuesday in Abuja, said the technical committee would ensure a consistent long-term effort on ensuring zero rejects of Nigeria’s products in EU markets and other parts of the world.

“Agriculture dominated our non-oil exports in 2014, by contributing $1.4 billion, representing 53.99 percent of non-oil exports. The committee has the target of ensuring our goods don’t suffer rejects again to appreciate further our non-oil earnings.

“Nigeria could borrow a leaf from a country like India, whose mango export to the EU was banned for two years but was lifted in April 2015, after advocacy and strict adherence and compliance to food safety and quality measures were implemented,” Awolowo said.

The terms of reference for the committee include: Propose a standard checklist of requirements for the various classes of exportable products; recommend strategies that will ensure compliance and adherence by Nigeria exporters; propose measures that will enhance trade facilitation between Nigeria and trading countries, and to propose measures to ensure bottlenecks associated with exports are simplified.

It includes further: “Recommend appropriate capacity building and enlightenment programmes for exporters; assessing the present inspection and certification procedures; recommend measures to achieve a one-stop shop for export clearance by relevant regulatory agencies; recommend means of ensuring regular interface between exporters and importers and developing a roadmap that would address illegal importation.”

Notably, the World Bank in its recent report estimated that Nigeria and other developing countries could incur a potential loss of $6.9 billion from rejection of exportable items by 2015, due largely to not complying with standards and technical regulations, metrology, testing, quality assessment, certification and accreditation.