Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Chief Adeniyi Adebayo has inaugurated the `Export4Survival’ campaign’ to boost the country’s non-oil export.
The `Export4Survival’ campaign is a flagship theme of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) aimed at sensitising the business community on inherent benefits in the non-oil export sector.
It is also geared towards driving economic diversification through the export of non-oil products and services.
Inaugurating the campaign programme on Monday in Abuja, the minister said that the event was an official endorsement of the initiative to stimulate the consciousness of all Nigerians to the realities of our time.
He stated that the diversification of the productive base of the Nigerian economy is key to employment generation, wealth creation and poverty reduction in the country.
The Minister urged Nigerians to embrace the non–oil export initiative, and expressed the hope that the campaign would be a game changer in Nigeria’s socio-economic space.
“The `Export4Survival’ campaign should therefore be embraced by stakeholders. The business community, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), trade associations, and the organised private sector should embrace it as a brand that will be a game changer in the socio-economic space of our national development.
“As part of efforts at creating awareness on non-oil export development and promotion activities of the council, there is no gainsaying the fact that with the Export4Survival campaign, significant mileage would be gained in the volume and value of exported Nigerian products and services.
“It is also envisaged that with the launch of this campaign, more activities would be seen to be taking place in the non-oil export ecosystem that would increase foreign exchange earnings into Nigeria,” the report by Ships and Ports on Monday quoted the Minister as saying,
He, however, tasked practitioners in the non-oil export value chain to adhere to global best practices for their products to receive acceptability with zero export rejection and be competitive in the international market.
Earlier, the Executive Director of NEPC, Ezra Yakusak, said that the event signaled the beginning of a commitment to reposition the operational activities of the council’s mandate to develop and promote the non-oil export sector.
Describing the non-oil export sector as a key driver of the Federal Government’s diversification agenda, Yakusak advocated concerted efforts to make it a significant contributor to the country’s overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
GIK/APA