Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised concerns over the huge decline in the non-oil export revenues that slumped further by over $6 billion in one year.
This is while the country still grapples with daily drop in the global price of oil and its antecedent effect on the economy. The CBN believes that addressing the challenges militating against the growth of the country’s non-oil sector is key, as government has expressed willingness to diversify its source of revenue from the oil and gas sector.
Speaking at the CBN/NEXIM Non-Oil Exports Stimulation Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, identified among others, low level of exports loans as major contributor to the decline the country was experiencing in the decline of proceeds from non-oil sector.
“The low level of export loans has no doubt contributed to a large extent to the decline in non-oil export revenue receipt from $10.53 billion in 2014 to $4.39 billion in 2015,” Emefiele said.
The CBN governor also emphasised on the need to build on the country’s export growth potentials, just as he urged the stakeholders to dialogue towards evolving responsive strategies that would expand resources for exports and its funding programmes on a complementary basis.
In his welcome address, Roberts Orya, managing director, Nigerian Exports Import Bank (NEXIM), emphasised on the need for the country to redouble its efforts towards developing other key sectors of the economy in view of the volatility in the international oil market.
“Our gathering here today is underscored by the recurring problem of the volatility in the international oil market, which has challenged our economy over the years. While the recent rebasing of Nigeria’s economy has revealed that the production base has become more diversified with the services sector accounting for about 52 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2014, our revenue profile has remained skewed, with the oil and gas sector contributing over 70 percent and over 90 percent of government and export earnings respectively….”
Stakeholders at the conference identified strengthening of the institutions, capacity building and enabling environment as key to driving the country’s export potentials, and also admonished on the need for effective coordination of policies like export credit guarantee, tax exemption, trade and technical barriers and multi-lateral and bilateral issues.
