Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr Segun Awolowo, has advised Nigerian exporters to discourage shortcut in their products’ quality in order to compete favourably in global markets.
Speaking during a capacity building programme on Grassroot Export Mobilisation for Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth organised by the NEPC for the small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) on value addition in Kwara state, on Wednesday, Mr Awolowo, said that the objective of the programme is to build the capacity of some selected target groups such as farmers, food processors, and exporters on agriculture value chain for export.
“There is the need to embrace international best practices as quality standard goes a long way to determine success in export business,” he said.
Represented by a deputy director in the council, Mr Andy Ambiktun, the NEPC boss enjoined the exporters to ensure proper documentation on legal and financial aspects of their businesses e.g. registration with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), NAFDAC and NEPC, said such is necessary to make one a recognised exporter.
“Documentation is important in export trade. Thus, all information that would be contained in export trade documentation should be accurate, neat, and presentable if it’s meant for the exportation of international standard. Exporters should also ensure good packaging of their products to ensure safety during transportation and during arrival, while issues such as the language of the countries being exported to should be considered in packaging”, he said.
Mr Awolowo also said that the capacity Building Intervention Programme is designed in line with the economic diversification drive of the present administration on the Export Expansion Programmes to enhance the export of high-quality standard products.
“In our effort to achieve the desire of nurturing our SMEs from Zero to Export, there is need to build a strategic partnership on export capacity building with specialized training institutes research and development and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that together we do it, the better the result in turning out would-be for exporters in the country,” he said.
Exporters were taken thorough measures to get registration certificate, export clearance documentation on their products and particular government agencies to contact.
In his speech at the workshop, the trade promotion advisor, Ilorin export assistance office, Ajayi James Adewumi, said that export business opportunities afford exporters to earn foreign exchange; take advantage of economies of scale; improve technology; improve on the local content or products development; and create employment and wealth among others.
“For economic and technological development, a nation needs to generate enough foreign exchange to import her machinery, raw materials and all other essential inputs needed for growth and development. With our mandate, we are structured to have a direct impact on export activities in Nigeria and as a matter of fact, NEPC is poised to transform the export landscape.
Also speaking during an interaction with the NEPC officials, some of the participants lamented the harrowing experience they face obtaining a bank loan to pursue their export trade.
They, therefore, called on the government to do more to encourage agriculture, provide tax rebate, and stop multiple taxations of farmers transporting their produce in order to enable them key into agribusiness, as they said that, “multiple taxations increases prices of food items.”
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