Nigeria needs articulated export approach - Expert

An international trade expert, Femi Boyede, has called on Nigerian government alongside other resource managers to do everything legally possible to keep the country going forward in the right direction as the rest of the world have moved on progressively.

Boyede who is the CEO of Koinonia Global Services Inc, made this known in AIT yesterday saying that, though all export-related government agencies are striving to promote export, howbeit, Nigeria still need a concerted and articulated approach to develop and promote export to other countries, quickly as other countries are doing.

The International trade expert who spoke on 'Export During COVID-19', said, China recorded the highest monetary returns in history from exportation of face mask alone on 2020 to the rest of the world, and Ghana has taken advantage of this pandemic by signing a country-to-country-specific agreement with the UK to the tune of £1.3bn to ship products to the UK, while Nigeria is yet to find its feet export-wise.

“Nigeria is missing in export development savviness during a period like this. We need to identify opportunities as China did during this pandemic. We need to explore the service sector, the world has gone beyond products and commodities, we are talking about using service to drive product trade. To get this done we need synergy."

He frowned at the $1bn allocated for export expansion grant for 2021 noting that such is capable of suffocating the sector the more. He added that he saw no difference after reopening the land borders for import and export.

“As the federal government is trying to finance export, we must realize it’s imperative to produce have tangible and intangible products to offer for foreign revenue, this can be possible with intelligent policies, economic framework and action plan to facilitate export business,” he added.