President Muhammadu Buhari, has commended the chief executive officer of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Segun Awolowo for his commitment to the non-oil export growth initiative.
Buhari who made the commendation in Abuja in a statement by his special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina while congratulating the NEPC boss on his 55th birthday extolled Awolowo’s diligence, commitment and vision.
He said such virtues “have culminated into exceptional leadership as he serves the country.”
The president also praised Awolowo for the steps he had taken to re-position the institution and drive the philosophy of exploring non-oil markets outside the country, while encouraging inward growth of industries.
It would be recalled that the present administration has been focusing on diversifying the nation’s economy away from hydrocarbon resources.
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the non-oil sector accounted for most of the growth recorded in the economy.
In real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 90.39 per cent to the nation’s GDP, lower than 91.47 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2017 and 92.65 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Meanwhile, the NEPC boss restated his commitment to take the Nigerian export to the next level.
He said the council had introduced different initiatives to ensure that the sector contributes its quota into the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
He said plans were afoot to review Nigeria’s export regulations to drive the nation’s non-oil export, pointing out that the move was to ensure export regulations in Nigeria are simple, clear, and more importantly not unreasonably costly to exporters.
“Regarding Nigeria’s export regulations we are in the process of a comprehensive review of the steps, costs, and efficacy of implementation,” he added.
He also said Nigeria “has come a long way, but still has some work to do” pointing out that exporters “are to manage regulations on two levels, starting with export regulations in Nigeria and ending with import regulations in target markets of its products.”
