Olusegun Awolowo
Nigeria has suffered mind-boggling losses following the instability in the prices of oil in the international market.
The Executive Director, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC),
Olusegun Awolowo has stated that Nigeria has lost over N30trillion of
export revenue to the crash in oil prices.
Awolowo made this disclosure at a one day NEPC, RVO, CBI Export
Roundtable and Exhibition on Export Competency Development programme in
Abuja.
According to him, last month, the national economic management team
established the national committee on export promotion to ensure
effective coordination of the zero oil plan in the 36 states of the
federation.
He said: “Nigeria must replace these lost export revenues in
order to sustain economic growth, stabilise the naira, sustain federal
and state government income and boost employment.
“There is an urgency to ramp up non-oil exports, as our future
earnings from crude oil which is facing significant headwinds. This is
elevated as the financial outlook on crude oil weakens day by day and
poses increasing threat on oil dependent economy just like Nigeria. We
are at a critical point in Nigeria’s history which requires bold and
decisive action to restructure and reposition our economy to survive
without oil.
“The council’s goal is to grow Nigeria’s non-oil export revenue
from N1.5trillion per annum to N5trillion within three to four years,
and over N10trillion over the longer term. The economic consequences are
dire for our country to keep crude oil as its primary source of export
revenue. There is too much oil supply and shrinking demand.
“The zero plan has been included as a central part of Nigeria
economic recovery plan. The three products under the export competency
development pilot scheme are among the 22 in the zero oil plan.
“Our export outlook in 2017 shows some positive developments. A
lot of cashew plantation with jumbo varieties are springing up, from a
raw cashew production of about 150,000tons to 15,000 tons are processed
ii Nigeria which is just 10 per cent. We see enormous potential in
processing.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment