Stakeholders at the 7th edition of Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar have agreed that non-oil exports hold the key to Nigeria’s economic reconstruction.
They spoke at this year’s edition of the event held in Lagos on Wednesday, July 20 under the theme “Unlocking opportunities in Nigeria’s non-oil export business.’
In his goodwill message, the founder and chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia, called for a concerted effort towards diversifying Nigeria’s export base through the promotion of non-oil exports.
Highlighting the importance of non-oil export to the nation’s economy, Ovia pointed out that Nigeria exported cocoa and several other non-oil products for years before oil was discovered.
He cited the example of the 25-storey Cocoa House in Ibadan, which was built with proceeds from cocoa exports.
He pointed out that many countries in the world, such as Japan and China been successful because they are doing a great deal of innovation, production and manufacturing of goods and services.
“We should also look at promoting the nation’s non-oil export sector through technology to create technological giants like Apple, Tesla, and Google.
“And we already have technology companies in this mould in Nigeria, such as Flutterwave, which has a valuation of $3 billion, making it more valuable than some banks in Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking further on the enormous potential in Nigeria’s non-oil sector, Ovia highlighted the phenomenal growth of Nigeria’s emerging financial technology (Fintech) companies such as Flutherwave, OPay, Interswitch, Kuda and Paystack, with market valuations of $3 billion, $2 billion, $1 billion, $500 million, $200 million, respectively.
“This underscores the enormous opportunity in the Fintech space,” he added.
He also noted that the most capitalised companies in the world, such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Tesla, Visa, etc., are not oil companies but are in the technological innovation space.
In his welcome address, the GMD/CEO of Zenith Bank, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, said the annual seminar has served as a veritable platform to deepen the conversation on promoting non-oil export in Nigeria, bringing together non-oil export practitioners and relevant government agencies to interact and explore the opportunities and proffer solutions to the challenges of non-oil export in the country.
He recalled that annual event came about as a result the commodity price slump of 2014-2016.
“When crude oil prices plummeted from $114.55 per barrel in June 2014 to $28.76 in January 2016, with an attendant effect on the availability of foreign exchange, it was time to look towards the non-oil export sector for a more sustainable source of foreign exchange that is not susceptible to external shocks and price volatility.
Highlighting some of the salient outcomes of the past six editions, Onyeagwu noted that previous outcomes found expression and influenced policy initiatives, for instance the extension of the period of repatriation of non-oil export proceeds from 90 days to 180 days and the policy mandating shippers not to carry export without a Nigeria Export Proceeds (NXP) Form Number were recommendations from previous seminars.
In his goodwill message, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele commended Zenith Bank for organising the event to explore opportunities in Nigeria’s non-oil export with a view to increasing the nation’s non-oil export base and ultimately increasing its share as a percentage of total export.
“This is why the theme of is year’s seminar “Unlocking Opportunities in Nigeria’s Non-Oil Export Business” is timely and appropriate. This is because the global economy and structure are changing rapidly before our eyes. The previous world economic order underpinned by globalization and seamless trade possibilities seems to be suffering major disruptions lately. We believe Nigeria has a lot of potentials, and we can harness this for the good of our people and country.”
He pointed out that the CBN has undertaken several initiatives to promote the non-oil export sector because of its firm belief that the non-oil export sector holds enormous potential to contribute to employment generation, wealth creation and economic growth of the country.
In his keynote address, the president and chief executive of Dangote Group, Mr. Aliko Dangote, said the country’s non-oil export is quite low compared to other African top oil producers.
“This exposes the economy to oil price/production risks. There is much room for growth, and the CBN is helping drive this through the RT200 programme.”
According to him, the CBN RT200 FX programme, which aims to achieve $200 billion in foreign exchange earnings from non-oil proceeds over the next three to five years, has very laudable objectives, including enhancing foreign exchange inflow, diversifying the source of foreign exchange inflow, increasing the level of contribution from non-oil export, and ensuring stability and sustainability of foreign exchange flows.
