CARGO logistics giants, Free on Board (FOB) Global Logistics in collaboration with Nigeria Exports Promotion Council (NEPC) is ramping up capacity and support for the multi million dollars agricultural export industry as part of moves to boost non-oil exports and stem reliance oil.
The duo in partnership with the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) hosted technical partners from the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, South Africa, Spain in a web meeting seeking warehousing facilities, customs clearance and distribution of Nigerian products mainly agricultural edibles.
The meeting moderated by Managing Director/Chief Executive of FBO Global Logistics Limited, Mr. Jimi Adebakin saw partners from Inext Logistic and Supply Chain India, Accelerate from the UAE, Global Raminatrans from Spain as well as companies from Johannesburg South Africa share company capacity on promoting Nigeria’s non oil export.
Executive director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Segun Awolowo, who spoke after the technical partners, said that government was bent on implementing zero oil plan and growing Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with non oil export.
The NEPC executive director said the country could tap into billions of dollars revenue from cocoa, cotton, cement, leather, cashew, sesame, shea butter, palm oil, fertilizer, petrochemicals and rubber and that export was the only way of changing the imbalance of trade narrative.
He revealed that the informal export sector in West Africa from Nigeria can generate US$41 billion yearly and that with the coming of the single African market (AfCTA), which is a good advantage those products being exported from Nigeria informally will be formalized going to all parts of Africa and will provide a larger market.
He said,†There is much we can take through cargo and particularly we are looking at agricultural product that can arrive in Europe the next day fresh, that is the crux of this. For our zero oil plan we have identified 22 products Nigeria can sell. The aim is to promote Nigeria goods and find market to sell them and our ‘one state one product’ plan is key to this meaning each state of the country will give us one product that we can market, package and export
“The country is blessed and yet we are still fixated on oil. We must put more money into non oil exports. We spend millions of dollars drilling for oil and most times we come up with naught but we do not invest in the non oil sector.
Buttressing the need for export to be paramount to grow the nation’s economic diversity as well as lift people out of poverty, Chief Executive of FBO Global Logistics Limited, Mr. Jimi Adebakin also charged government to encourage low income exporters
He also said FOB is encouraging Nigerians to go into export of agricultural products, stating that the reason they invited the partners is that they are creating warehouses in all the major cities globally to facilitate trade.
“We are creating warehouses in all major cities of the world. We have 170 technical partner s in 170 countries and warehouses in 3,700 cities of the world. So what we are saying is bring your product that is made by you, labeled by you we sell it and take our freight and return the profit. The days of people saying ‘I’m unemployed in Nigeria should be over.â€
“If we put same energy we put in importation into exportation, nobody can touch us. There is a new possibility daily, we move 20tons in cargo but with the right awareness, we ought to be moving 100 tons daily. What is 100 tons, its 60ntrailers and how many trailers do you see coming from the East or the North to Lagos?
Earlier, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Aviance, Mrs Olatokunbo Fagbemi, said that NEPC should encourage Nigerians to standardize and export agricultural products, adding that there is so much to benefit from it.
According to her, for agricultural products to be accepted abroad, it must not only be well processed but that it must also be well packaged and labeled.
She said that some Nigeria agricultural products had to be destroyed because they were not well packed by the exporters.
She hinted that to ensure Nigeria products are not rejected abroad; NAHCO was working with the Ministry of Agriculture, adding that NAHCO welcomes any contribution that would make export grow.
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