Nigeria’s Non-Oil Export As The Country’s New Lifewire, by Musa Ilallah
Even though Nigeria is well diversified in terms of people, culture, resources, and government revenue expectations, for many years now Nigeria has become almost totally dependent on the oil sector for its domestic and foreign financial earnings and expenditure.
For the dire need to communicate effectively there is need to state that non oil export can be defined as those visible and invisible exports which do not form part of oil export but contribute to the growth of the total export which includes manufactured products, agricultural products, services, solid minerals like tin, coal and columbite, among others.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the non-oil sector’s growth recorded recently indicates the country’s growing resilience as well as decreasing susceptibility to shocks in the global oil market.
The Vice President who stated this in a keynote remark at a National Conference on Non-Oil Export in Abuja added: “in 2019, the year preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, non-oil revenue represented 92.68 per cent of our total gross domestic product, GDP.”
The good news is that the Buhari administration is on track to making a significant difference in the Nigerian export market space.
The administration has undertaken an aggressive non-oil export growth strategy that is delivering practical results, with the Nigerian Export-Import Bank, NEXIM at the forefront of its implementation. Established in 1991, NEXIM functions as an export credit agency that provides finance and risk-bearing services to exporters.
In 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed a Management Team comprising technocrats with wide-ranging competencies and expertise to reposition NEXIM for a five-year term.
The Executive Director/CEO of Nigeria’s Export Promotion Council, NEPC, Ezra Yakusak had disclosed recently that in spite of the global economic recession that affected most businesses last year, the non-oil sector recorded a significant growth of 4,146,534 metric tons of products valued at $2.593billion of exports between January to June of 2022.
Presenting the country’s first half-year progress report on the non-oil sector in Abuja, Yakusak stated that this represented a 62.37 per cent increase as against the sum of N1.59billion for the first half year in 2020 and 2021 which stood at $981.442 million.
These figures were culled from the non-oil export performance reports of various pre- shipment inspection agents who are appointed by the Federal Government to determine the volume, value and destination of non-oil export.
The analysis from pre-shipment inspection agents indicates that January to June 2022 export performance is the highest half year non-oil export performance since 2018.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed had recently unveiled the details of what propelled a strong economic showing resulting in the attainment of Gross Domestic Product of 5.01 by Nigeria in the second quarter of 2021.
The Minister while presenting the economic performance index at a news conference in Abuja, described the second quarter GDP as the strongest growth in the economy since 2014.
Nigerian government is targeting to generate N3.96tn revenue from oil, non-oil sectors annually.
Available records show that more than 200 different products ranging from manufactured, semi processed, solid minerals to raw agriculture products were reported to have been exported in the period under review while the trend of products exported from Nigeria is gradually shifting from its traditional agricultural export to semi processed manufactured goods.
Nigerian products were exported to 112 countries USA, Asia, Europe, Oceania regions and Africa. He pointed out that Brazil, the United States and India were the top three export destinations based on the value of their imports from Nigeria.
The traditional agricultural export commodities which have long-term export potential include cocoa, groundnuts, oil palm, cotton, and rubber, and the industrial activities include vegetable oils, textiles, cement, steel, motor vehicle assembly, chemicals and petrochemicals. Policy recommendations and areas for further work are suggested.
Apart from crude oil and gas, Nigeria’s non-oil exports are dominated by raw materials and agricultural commodities. In the fourth quarter of 2021, non-oil exports were dominated by urea, cocoa, sesame seeds, and aluminium alloys.
The top exports of Nigeria are Crude Petroleum, $30bn; Petroleum Gas, $5.89bn; Scrap Vessels, $1.29bn; Special Purpose Ships, $775m and Refined Petroleum, $613mn and exported mostly to India, $6.27bn; Spain, $4.8bn; China, $2.54bn; Netherlands, $2.24bn and South Africa, $2.17bn.
Nigeria is the ninth largest oil exporter in the world in terms of value. For the country, this means that about 90 percent of export value is generated by mineral fuels, oils, and distillation products.
Musa Ilallah, Emeka Anyaoku Street, Abuja, [email protected]
