‘We want to replicate cashew model on entire non-oil sector value chain’

Olusegun Awolowo is the executive secretary of ‎Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC). He spoke with Harrison Edeh on plans to improve Nigeria’s non-oil exports with a 30- year Zero Oil Plan and diversify the economy.

What are your immediate plans to grow the non-oil sector and diversify the economy?

The Immediate step is to align ourselves properly to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the federal government. The Zero Oil Plan is also mentioned there and we are at the stage of implementation now.

‎My strategy has always been: Policy, Legislation and Implementation. Having done with the policy, which is the strategy, you get the buy-in of stakeholders and look at where you need back-up of legislation and push it on from there.

This period, also, we would be looking at the National Assembly, to really modernise the NEPC Act, to bring it up-to-date.

Also, we shall be working more closely with the state governors because most of the work is going to be done in the states. So, we are talking and working more closely with the state governors on the Zero Oil Plan. The vice president’s committee on the Zero Oil Plan is also working more closely and guiding us in these plans.

‎Do you have collaborations with other key agencies such as Nigeria Customs Service?

The non-oil export committee has all the key relevant committees in it, comprising the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Office for Trade Negotiations, the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, the Ministry of Solid Minerals, and the Ministry of Agriculture. We are working very closely with these agencies and there is already appreciable progress in this regard.

I say it all the time that the Nigerian economy is already diversified, and in fact, it is already diversified up to 80 percent. But the problem is that we are not earning foreign exchange from it yet. Our foreign exchange is ‎still largely from export of crude oil.

Let me tell you the success story we have on cashew. We took cashew four years ago from 130, 000 metric tonnes (MT) to over 200, 000 MT. In that way, we worked on a two-legged approach: Plant the cashew and also go into processing. We have raised production, earned more foreign exchange, had backward integration and employed more people in the value chain. This is the way to go and we are working hard to replicate the cashew model on all sectors of the non-oil sector value chain.

You may recall that the vice president recently commissioned a cashew processing factory in Ilorin. The idea now is to replicate the cashew success story in the products we have chosen under the Zero Oil Plan.

More so, another strategy that is becoming a success story just like we had in the cashew industry is on petro-chemicals. When we say zero oil, it does not mean we are not looking at oil. We are looking at processing that oil, hence we are looking at building more refineries to facilitate exportation of the oil we have so that we also harvest values and benefits from the export of petro-chemical products.

That is what Aliko Dangote is doing currently in Lagos, building that refinery and taking advantage of the oil. The target is to add more value in the Nigeria’s oil sector while also harvesting the benefits therein.

Are you going to roll out incentives for export of commodities that have added values?

That is the whole essence of what we are working on in respect of the Zero Oil Plan. People are already taking advantage of ‎the Zero Oil Plan. You just have to visit so many of our departmental stores now and I tell you, it is a flood of Nigerian goods. People are trying; the packaging is improving. That is the way forward.

For a long time, we only operated the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and that is ‎expanding now, as we have the Export Development Fund now that the government is supporting us with.

There are also baskets of incentives being worked on, where we are looking at incentives regarding each product. We are looking at such incentives to give to manufacturers and industrialists to grow their businesses and production.

‎In your own assessment, how soon will the Zero Oil Plan begin to make appreciable impact on the economy?

Different products have different timelines. For instance, you look at cocoa and you could say boldly within the next four years that this is where we could be. This is the same as sesame.

If you look at Ivory Coast, for instance, their major source of export is ‎cocoa. In that country, cocoa is their own oil. We encourage farmers in the cocoa belt to grow it with the right seedlings. Also in the sesame, cashew and cotton belts, we are assisting them with the right kind of seedlings.

This is what the National Committee on Export Promotion is working on. We are looking at the alternatives to the oil as the main base of our economy, as most developed countries are already finding alternatives to it. So, we need to develop other sources of market from non-oil to generate revenue.

It appears foreigners are dominating our export markets?

Let me tell you, there are several industries in Nigeria, although operated by expatriates but are fully indigenous. Also, we are encouraging investors to come in. The investment we want in Nigeria now is investment that targets manufacturing and Industry. These are kinds of investments that drive economic growth and that is what we are targeting.

The Nigeria Office for Trade Negotiations is looking at how possibly we could benefit from our trade agreements and explore more advantages of the ‎African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) of the United States of America to export more commodities.