Bankers, industrialists, and trade experts among others, have pushed for increased non-oil export to reviving the nation’s economy.
Speaking yesterday at the seventh Zenith Bank’s International Trade Seminar, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele; founder & Chairman, Zenith Bank Plc, Jim Ovia, President & Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, called for more support for the non-oil sector to speed up economic nenewal.
Other speakers at the event held in Lagos and virtually, with theme: ‘Unlocking Opportunities in Nigeria’s Non-Oil Export Business’ include Secretary- General, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene and President/Chairman, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Prof. Benedict Oramah.
Ovia advocated the diversification of Nigeria’s export base through the promotion of non-oil exports. He highlighted the importance of non-oil export to the economy.
He said Nigeria exported cocoa and other non-oil products for years before oil was discovered.
According to Ovia, there was the need to promote Nigeria’s non-oil export sector through technology to create technological giants like Apple, Tesla, and Google. He listed Flutherwave, OPay, Interswitch, Kuda and Paystack, with market valuations of $3 billion, $2 billion, $1 billion, $500 million, $200 million as success stories in the Fintech industry.
Ovia noted that the most capitalised companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Tesla, amd Visa are not oil companies, but are in the technological innovation space.
Onyeagwu said the yearly seminar serves as a platform to deepen non-oil exports.
The event, he said, had been bringing together non-oil export practitioners and government agencies to interact and explore the opportunities and proffer solutions to the challenges of non-oil export.
Onyeagwu added that the commodity price slump of 2014 to 2016 was a watershed moment.
According to him, “when crude oil prices plummeted from $114.55 per barrel in June 2014 to $28.76 in January 2016, with an attendant effect on the availability of foreign exchange, it was time to look towards the non-oil export sector for a more sustainable source of foreign exchange that is not susceptible to external shocks and price volatility.
Also, Emefiele commended Zenith Bank for organising the seminar to explore opportunities in the non-oil export and increase the non-oil export base and, ultimately, increase its share in the export sector.
“This is why the theme of this year’s seminar “Unlocking Opportunities in Nigeria’s Non-Oil Export Business” is timely and appropriate. This is because the global economy and structure are changing rapidly before our eyes.The previous world economic order underpinned by globalisation and seamless trade possibilities seems to be suffering major disruptions lately,” he said.
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