The Federal Government has announced plans to generate a whooping sum of two billion dollars (N394 billion) from non-oil exports within the 2016 fiscal period.
The Managing Director, Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Mr Robert Orya, said N394 billion will be generated from non-oil exports in 2016
NAN reports that Managing Director, Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Mr Robert Orya, made this known on Thursday, January 21.
Orya, who frowned that the country had not been able to achieve the potentials of the sector in view of its abundant resources, noted that there was need for banks to increase lending to non-oil exporters.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria, in partnership with NEXIM, has announced a N300 billion intervention fund for non-oil export at 9% interest for exporters after non-oil export revenue declined by 6.1 billion dollars between 2014 and 2015.
Orya assured that with the intervention fund, Nigerians would soon start observing growth in the number of non-oil products exported to outside countries.
“We have only six products in a basket for the whole country. Why can’t we look for ways of increasing the number of commodities. Because when you begin to export commodities in raw forms, you are exporting jobs and opportunities to other country. We should not repeat the same mistakes we made with crude oil. We send our oil abroad; it gets refined, sent back to us and we buy at a higher rate.
“Where it is being refined, we are creating jobs and and a lot of opportunities for their own economy. So this is what we need to avoid in non oil. To boost the sector, we have categorised our interventions into quick, medium terms. We should be able to make up to two billion dollars for this year from non oil export,” Orya said.
He added that the apex bank would give assistance to companies that were already exporting, which would in turn help in creating more jobs, reduce poverty as well as diversifying the economy.
“Our quick strategy is to expand the businesses of companies that are already exporting. We will give them more support because that is all they need. So this is where the loan comes in. We will give them more liquidity at a moderated rate to be able to bring in more foreign exchange,” he said.
Following the drastic fall in crude oil price at the international market, the country’s currency, Naira is now changing at N293 to a dollar and N404 to a pound sterling . Crude oil is now sold for 26.95 dollars per barrel.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria new injunctions to be enforced by banks,customers are to be charged N50 stamp duty for money received into their accounts via electronic transfer, cash and cheques. The directive is expected to increase the federal government revenue base in the region of billions of naira. An estimated N1 billion is expected to be made from cheque based transactions,excluding the revenue which will be made via electronic funds transfer, instant payments and cash deposits.
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