Promoting export business in Nigeria

The Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is the official organization saddled with the responsibility of promoting export business in Nigeria. However, some other organizations, groups, and individuals have also taken up this responsibility because of its importance to them. Exporting can be rewarding in increasing sales, efficiency, productivity, generating new ideas, better ways of doing business, sharing risks, and reduction of dependency.

The NEPC has put in place some strategies to promote export business in Nigeria. Some of them are as follows:

eRegistration

To start an export business in Nigeria, you must register with the NEPC and receive a certificate of recognition. This certification will license you to do the export business in the country, enable you to get trade promotion support from NEPC, participate in the council’s training and network with other exporters.

NEPC has made the registration process easy by providing an e-registration platform that can enable you to register from anywhere in the world. After you have completed the registration process, you can be issued your certificate within one working day. This has no doubt improved the ease of doing business propagated by the current Nigeria government to encourage exports and attract investors to the country.

Trade fair and exhibitions

Trade fairs and exhibitions provide excellent marketing opportunities for exporters to display their products and interact with potential customers and general stakeholders. NEPC has organized several trade fairs and exhibitions to facilitate interaction between Nigeria exporters and importers from other countries and to strengthen their trade relations.

Trade incentives

The Nigeria Government, through NEPC, is proving monetary, tax, or legal provisions designed to encourage people to export certain goods and services. These incentives help exporters keep their products price competitive in global markets, lets them expand their exports and penetrate the global market easily. 

Training sessions    

NEPC, banks, and insurance companies in Nigeria have put in place sector-based, capacity building sessions to enhance product quality and increase exporter’s competitiveness in the international markets. 

Financial support

Recently, the Nigeria Bankers Committee made provision for a ₦200 billion (two hundred billion nairas) credit facility to boost production and export trade for five cash crops. These crops are Sesame Seed, Cashew, Cocoa, Shea butter, and Oil Palm in their different value chains.

The Nigeria creative industry will also benefit from this credit facility by generating 300, 000 more jobs that will help produce more movie, musical, and arts for exportation. These efforts are all geared towards consolidating on the gains experienced by the country last year in export trade. It is also to help the country in its attempt to diversify its economy. As you may know, the Nigeria economy is dominated by oil as the primary source of revenue and when there is any form of shortage in the supply of this resource either because of disturbance by Niger Delta militants or regulation by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the country’s economy suffers.

There has always been this talk about Nigeria being a mono-economy country over the years, but this year, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, supported by the Minister for Trade, Okey Enalammah is putting measures in place to promote export business and diversify the Nigerian economy.

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