Report on Non-oil Export Capacity Building Series

The lack of improvement and deterioration in Nigeria’s export trade performance rankings such as measures of time and cost associated with exporting and importing a standardized cargo of goods reinforces the need for Nigeria to undertake urgent and extensive reform to improve its trading across borders performance. This research provides immediate, medium and long term reform options.

A roundtable event on the potentials of exporting the services sector in Nigeria. At the Roundtable, it was noted that among business owners and exporters, there is little understanding of what services export entails. Many businesses engage in service exports but are not aware of this. Understanding the four modes of services – Cross border trade, Consumption abroad, Commercial presence, and Presence of natural persons – is important for business growth. To achieve this, stakeholders including the NEPC will need to conduct capacity building and sensitisation workshops for exporters, working with relevant business associations.

Aba Industrial City is an aggregation of thousands of MSMEs and mass producers of industrial goods including garment and leather products. If properly harnessed, the mass production capacities of component clusters of AIC and similar models are capable of positioning Nigeria at a competitive advantage in the global garment and leather industrial space. In 2016, the Textile, Apparel, and Footwear sector contributed N2 trillion ($6.6 billion), approximately 2% of Nigeria’s total GDP, to Nigeria’s economy.

Trade Associations play a role in promoting appropriate policies, regulations, and necessary reforms relating to their sector of operations. They create opportunities for networking and consultations among industry players as well as being a voice when it comes to new regulations and legislations while encouraging best practices among its members. According to Peter Gomersall^[1], trade associations exist to support their members and further their interests, to defend them when they are under threats and to promote a common position on issues affecting the environment in which they operate.

Given the foregoing, the PDF Bridge Trade Policy Workstream organised a two-day capacity-building session targeted at strengthening the leadership of non-oil export-related trade associations and improve on their business strategy to position them to take advantage of the opportunities in the non-oil export value chain. The sessions had in attendance delegates from government agencies such as FMITI, NAQS, FMARD, NOTN, CBN as well as executives of trade group drawn from various industries including agricultural commodities farmers, agricultural commodities exchange and aggregators, industrialists, agro-processors, women, and youth development groups, textile and apparel among other participants.

[1] https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEDS/article/download/7852/8030

 Here is a link to Day 1 of the training.

This dialogue explores the alternative ways to provide market access to the southeast business hubs from Aba through Onitsha. COVID19 has caused businesses to reimagine their trade value-chain working actively to diversify roles. This dialogue explores ways that new technologies can help bridge the gap between buyers, sellers, and manufacturers.