Nigeria recorded $2.3bn non-oil export in 2010

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, has said that Nigerias non-oil export has increased 11 fold from USD 0.2 billion in 2000 to USD 2.3 billion in 2010.He made this known during the presentation of the report of the inter-ministerial committee on the comprehensive review of the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) by the chairman of the committee, Dr Abubakar Mohammad, in his office at the weekend.The minister noted that the prime of Nigeriasnon-oil exports consists of agro-allied products such as cocoa, leather, rubber, cotton-textiles, shrimps sesame seeds and gum arabic which had been growing consistently at a double digit rate.Senator Martins-Kuye said the EEG was a well calculated, sound and unassailable policy in the area of export-oriented and forex-earning industrialisation, adding that its main objective was to compensate export manufacturers for manufacturing cost increases traceable to the harsh economic environment thereby enhancing their products competitiveness in the export markets.According to him, the policy has succeeded to the point that Nigerias non-oil exports have been growing consistently at a double-digit rate in the last five years.Senator Martins-Kuye recalled the implementation challenges of the policy which he said ranged from the corruptive and manipulative activities of a few export manufacturers to alleged institutional hindrances on the part of the Federal Government implementation agencies.The minister stated furtherthat the report was the effort or the inter-agency committee which the Ministry of Commerce and Industry established to recommend appropriate reform of the EEG policy in order to enable it accomplish its laudable and indispensable objectives.
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