Nigeria earned $2.9bn from non-oil sector export in Q1 2022 – Emefiele
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele has said that the country achieved about $2.9 billion from the non-oil export proceed as at the first quarter of 2022.
Emefiele while speaking at the 7th Annual Edition of the Zenith Bank International Trade Seminar, themed ‘Unlocking Opportunities in Nigeria’s Non-Oil Export Business’ said the non-oil sector revenue in export is quite low compared to other major African countries.
According to him no country in Africa should be better than Nigeria in non-oil sector export.
He noted that the CBN RT200 FX programme aimed to achieve $200 billion in foreign exchange earnings from non-oil proceeds over the next 3-5yrs.
“The global economy is changing rapidly before our eyes, globalisation is being dismantled, policy of raising rates by advanced countries are having adverse effects in our economies, the frontier markets are finding it difficult to source for finance. We cannot rely on other countries to get our country moving. Non-oil sector holds enormous potential to contribute to employment and create wealth.
“We created a rebate scheme to encourage the export of non-oil products in the country, in April 2022 CBN made the first rebate payment of N3.5 billion for the first quarter. Earlier in the week, we authorised rebate payment of N20 billion for the second quarter. Zenith Bank received about 75 per cent of what was paid in the first quarter and above 50 per cent of the rebate for the second quarter.
“I encourage Zenith Bank to do more in non-oil export. I encourage all other banks to join us in this programme. Since we launched the programme in 2015, the value of non-oil export has risen to $2.9 billion as at Q1 of 2022.”
The Chairman of Zenith Bank, Mr. Jim Ovia noted that Fintech needs more support from the CBN in terms of financing because that is the area that will make Nigeria grow faster in terms of non-oil export.
“Let’s look at what has made other countries successful, most of the advanced nations don’t have oil. The top 10 capitalised firms in the world are not oil companies. We can create non-oil services here in Nigeria. Like Flutterwave has valuation of $3 billion, Opay, $2 billion, Interswitch above $1 billion among others. Those are areas our GDP is developing and need to be encouraged,” he said.
The Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc, Ebenezer Onyeagwu said the non-oil sector which existed before the discovery of oil is a treasure pot of the country.
“We find out that this is the area the country could tap to enrich the economy, with changes in policies the sector has gotten some good impact. We introduced a disciplined and record-keeping export system. We partnered with Export Promotion Council for growth and development. CBN in Q1 2022 introduced incentive with rebate for exports, the initiative has seen repatriation of non-oil proceeds to the country,” he said.
The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote called on the CBN to replicate what it did to encourage rice production in the country to the production of wheat and dairy in the country, adding that Nigeria currently imports $2.8 billion worth of wheat and $1.4 billion worth of dairy in the country.
“Cash crops have been major component of non-oil exports and there is room for improvement. Nigeria has abundant variety of solid minerals but the sector constitutes only 0.2 per cent of GDP. We can generate $20 billion from solid minerals.
“We need to have a steel industry. We should establish an NNPC equivalent to hold stake on behalf of government,” he said.
