Export Expansion Facility Programme to boost exports to West Africa — NEPC

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council has disclosed that the N50 billion Export Expansion Facility Programme (EEFP) would increase Nigeria’s non-oil exports to West Africa, building on ECOWAS Trade Promotion Organisations (TPOs) network.

This revelation was made known by the Executive Director, (NEPC), Segun Awolowo and the President of the ECOWAS TPOs, a scheme towards increasing the volume of trade in West Africa.

Awolowo stated that the scheme, a part of the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) which was launched to boost non-oil exports in Nigeria, will also “support resilience in shoring up foreign exchange, diversification, modernisation of Nigeria’s economy and acceleration of economic growth and economic support.”

He said there are 16 programmes as approved in the Implementation Work plan under seven workstreams, including Capacity Building, Emergency Interventions, Export Aggregation, Export Inclusion, Export Trade facilitation, Institutional Strengthening and Market Development.

Awolowo cited that the Emergency Intervention is to support existing exporters in responding to shocks caused by COVID-19.

He said Market Development involves penetrating identified export markets as value chain analysis for priority products, leveraging Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).

Awolowo added that the Trade Promotion Organisations  Network would “work towards facilitating the ease of trade for MSMEs within the ECOWAS region and Africa in general.”

The EEFP is targeted at helping export businesses from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, safeguard jobs and de-risk the economy from shocks like COVID.

Its primary goal is to increase Nigeria’s export capacity in the near term and its export volumes in the medium term.

It was inaugurated by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Chief Niyi Adebayo in March including Nigeria’s first online Grant Management Portal (GMP) for non-oil exports.

While the EEFP is being implemented by the NEPC, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is the supervisory body over the agency and its operations.

The programme anticipated 500 beneficiaries since the inauguration but it has received more than 3,500 applications for the grant, out of which more than 2,000 were verified after meeting the eligibility criteria.