The Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank says funding, infrastructure, quality and processing are major constraints to the growth of the country’s non-oil exports.
This is contained in a presentation by Mr Hope Yongo, the Technical Adviser to the Managing Director of NEXIM, at a one-day conference on non-oil export stimulation in Abuja.
NEXIM said that the constraints did not only constitute some of the major risk areas affecting the performance of non-oil exports, but also discouraging new investments in the sector.
Nigeria’s non-oil export revenue receipts dropped from 10 billion dollars in 2014 to four billion dollars in 2015, according to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele.
Emefiele had earlier identified low level of export loans as a major contributor to the decline.
Shedding more light on the funding issue, NEXIM said that the volume of sectoral allocation export loans and advances to the sector was declining at an annual average of .60 per cent.
In value terms, it said that the domestic non-oil export loans had been declining from an annual average of N525 billion in the past three years.
The banks identified inadequate haulage and storage facilities, high transportation costs, dearth of warehousing/conditioning and laboratory/assaying facilities as some of the major logistical constraints to non-oil exports.
According to NEXIM, the country lacks a quality infrastructure to ensure the conformity of non-oil exports to global standards, hence the poor performance of Nigerian products at international markets.
It also listed poor electricity supply, export incentive issues, outdated factories and aged plantations as some of the major production issues in the sector.
As a way out, the bank called for enhancement of public and private sector credit to exporters, prioritisation and simplification of export processes and provision of quality infrastructure.
It also stressed the need for exporters to be given more access to credit, bridging of the country’s infrastructure gap as well as attraction of more private sector investments.
“Barges can be used on the navigable inland waterways to evacuate millions of low value/bulk solid mineral products, thereby bridging the infrastructure gap.
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