he country earned a total sum of $2.4bn (N472bn) from the exportation of
cocoa, rubber, and other non-oil commodities within the 2014 fiscal
period, figures obtained from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council have
revealed.
The country’s export figure of $2.4bn for 2014, according to trade
statistics from the NEPC, represents a decline of 19.19 per cent over
the $2.97bn (N585bn) earned in the previous year.
A breakdown of the non-oil receipts of $2.4bn showed that cocoa exports
with a total amount of $666.45m accounted for the highest non-oil export
earnings, followed by raw hides, skins and leather with $487.97m.
Others are oil seeds, grains and plant/straw, amounting to $389.78m;
aluminium, $113.35m; tobacco, $109.05m; tins, $96.32m; edible fruits and
nuts, $75.24m; rubbers, $70.03m and footwear, $62.89m.
The rest are copper, $59.6m; fish and crustaceans, $55.68m; plastics,
$54.63m; lead, $46.65m; nickel, $27.35m; cottons, yarns and woven,
$21.87m.
In terms of country of destination, the NEPC document indicated that
Netherlands, with a total amount of $456.96m, accounted for Nigeria’s
highest non-oil export revenue.
Others are ECOWAS, $350.8m; Italy, $344.21m; Japan, $211.25m; India,
$209.4m; Turkey, $116.8m; Spain, $102.2m; Germany, $100.97m; China,
$86.3m; Vietnam, $85.4m and the United States, $81.6m.
Similarly, Nigeria’s total exports to South Korea stood at $74.2m in
2014; Hong Kong, $62.3m; Malaysia, $41.7m while Belgium, the United
Kingdom and Canada stood at $39.6m, $39.5m and $29.7m, respectively.
The Chief Executive Officer, NEPC, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, said the agency
had been at the forefront of the diversification of the Nigerian
economy, adding that this had been further reinforced by the recent
decline in the price of crude oil in the global market.
While admitting that the drop in the price of oil had led to reductions
in government revenue with pronounced negative effects on different
sectors of the economy, he said that NEPC had identified 13 National
Strategic Export Products to replace oil.
The 13 products are palm oil, cocoa, cashew, sugar, rice, iron ore, metals, aluminium, and auto parts.
Others are petroleum products, fertilizer/urea, petrochemicals and methanol.
He said, “The expectations we have is to explore the possibility of investing in priority areas that we have highlighted.
“We need to attract counterpart investments into priority areas by
investors such as the agricultural sector. We need to fastback trade
event information and we want to support capacity development for
exporters.”
He said the potential of the 13 products, which cut across key sectors
of the economy would be maximised through investments, capacity
development, innovation and formidable partnerships.