The Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr Olusegun Awolowo, yesterday in Abuja hinted on the agency\’s plan to go into full time processing and exportation of finished products, in its efforts to ensure a truly diversified economy.
Awolowo, who made this disclosure while speaking to journalists following his reappointment as the head of NEPC, said that the proposed plan would be encouraged by a full implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan which was recently launched by the National Economic Council Committee on Export Promotion.
According to him, the NEPC would also work in collaboration with the National Assembly to review and modernise the NEPC Act in order to bring it up to date with modern realities. In the meantime however, he reiterated his resolve to support the country\’s commitment to alternative sources of foreign exchange income away from oil exportation.
I say, it all the time, the Nigerian economy has already been diversified. In fact, we have achieved about 80 percent diversification, but the problem is that we have not earned enough foreign exchange from the diversification. We presently earn foreign exchange from the export of crude oil, which still stands at 90 percent, and that is because we rely much on crude.– Olusegun Awolowo
Speaking further, Awolowo highlighted some of the achievements that have so far been recorded by the NEPC, including the increase of about 200,000 metric tones in the amount of cashew nuts produced and exported from the country last year compared to the 130 metric tones that was produced last year.
About the NEPC
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council was established in 1976 through a military decree, and has since gone through a series of amendments both under successive military and civilian regimes. The sole responsibility of the agency according to the law establishing it is to promote the exportation of non-oil materials from Nigeria in a bid to diversify and build a formidable economic base for the country. Much of this task has not been achieved, despite the many years that have passed since the agency\’s establishment.
