By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is targeting to generate a minimum of $30 billion from non-oil exports annually as revenue.
This was disclosed by NEPC Trade Promotion Advisor, Mr Bello Noma, in Jos, Plateau State, noting that Nigeria has abundant non-oil resources in each state of the federation waiting to be harnessed.
The trade promotion advisor said that the NEPC, under the leadership of Mr Ezra Yakusak, had developed a policy plan to boost the non-oil sector.
He added that the plan was to ensure that in the event that the price of crude oil crashed, the country would have shock absorbers.
“We have a plan known as the zero oil plan, and we have identified 11 strategic products that will supply Nigeria with sufficient foreign exchange, known as 11 products.
“We have category A of the 11 products as well as category B of the 11 products. These products will be able to supply Nigeria with $30 billion every year when we scale up production,” he said.
He pointed out that each state of the federation “has a unique product under NEPC’s one state, one product policy to focus on”.
The trade promotion advisor said that when they upscaled production, the nation would be able to realise one billion dollars in each state of the federation.
“When you look at the statistics of non-oil export over the last four years, you can see that the data keeps rising.
“Last year, we recorded $3.4 billion in the total value of non-oil export, but because of the effort put in place by our chief executive, you can see that from January to September, we have already recorded more than $3.5 billion.
“We still have three months to go, which means is an indication that yes, the effort being put in place by the council is beginning to yield results,” he added.
Modupe Gbadeyanka