..Wants more support for SMEs
The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Nigeria’s export sector.
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The ACCI President, Dr Al-Mujtaba Abubakar made the appeal on Monday at the 2nd Abuja SME Conference and Exhibition organised via webinar by the National Chamber Policy Centre (NCPC) of ACCI.
The event had as its theme: “SMEs as agent of Export Trade’’.
Abubakar also called for a state of emergency in the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) in view of many bottlenecks hindering the prospect of the sector in Nigeria, especially access to export markets.
According to him, our goal is to among other things remove all bottlenecks in the export process.
Represented by the Executive Director, NCPC, Mr Olawale Rasheed, Abubakar who saluted the efforts of regulatory agencies in the sector, said that the state of emergency would speed the operation of domestic warehouses.
He also said that it would fast-track the opening of special export terminals at various ports across the country and streamline export procedures for reduced hindrances for exporters.
Also speaking, the Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Mr Olawale Fasanya highlighted the need to support the development of SMEs in Nigeria.
Represented by Mr Onesi Lawani, the Deputy Director, Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, SMEDAN, Lawani said that Nigeria’s non-oil export must be competitive.
According to Fasanya, Nigeria’s non-oil export earnings are insignificant when compared with other emerging economies as the total value of the non-oil exports in 2021 was 10.083 billion dollars.
“The export market is all about competitiveness and this borders on price and quality.
“Bangladesh a country once touted as poor exported knit and woven garments alone estimated at 30 billion dollars in the first seven months of 2021.
“India, another emerging market, exported textiles and apparel worth 29.8 billion dollars between April and December 2021, according to the ministry of textiles in the country.
“Vietnam, another emerging market earned 57.54 billion dollars from export of phones and accessories in 2021 according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs in the country.
“Argentina earned nearly 21 billion dollars from export of delivery trucks, soybean oil, meal, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,’’ Fasanya said.
While urging the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other development institutions to creatively support the MSMEs to access financial resources, Fasanya said that adequate power supply and friendly ports operations were critical in increasing exports in Nigeria.
“More so, friendly regulations are instrumental to increasing MSMEs exports in Nigeria.
“`Quick wins for MSMEs exports is deliberate efforts of state governments to ease access to land, provision of common processing facility in clusters, and improvement in security.”
According to him, strengthening export processing zones and creating awareness on export standards and potential, are also quick wins for MSMES.
Similarly, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA), Mr Shehu Abdulkadir said that improved access to financial incentives and provision of basic and technological infrastructure were essential in the growth of MSMEs in Nigeria.
Abdulkadir, represented by the Senior Manager, Research, Statistics and Development in AEA, Usman Usman, also estressed the need for adequate legal and regulatory framework as well as improved commitment to building domestic expertise and knowledge.
In his presentation titled, “The Role of Abuja Enterprise Agency in Promoting SMEs as Agent of Export Trade’’, said that enhancing the capabilities of MSMEs export potential remained critical to diversifying Nigeria’s economy.
According to him, AEA will not relent in strengthening institutional synergy and building the capacities of local industries and MSMEs to produce and export their products to the international market.
“This in our view will lead to the attainment of our goal to expand our non–oil exports and address the myriad of challenges we face as a country,” Abdulkadir said.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) Dr Ezra Yakusak, pledged the council’s commitment to curb the rejection of non-oil exports.
Represented by Mrs Ukoanam Gertrude, the Director, Export Development and Incentive Department, NEPC, Yakusak urged Nigerians to leverage on the export trade houses to ensure their products conform to the acceptable standard.
NEPC on Aug. 25 announced that Nigeria exported 4,146,534 metric tonnes of non-oil products valued at 2.593 billion dollars between January and June 2022.
According to Yakusak, the development represents an increase of 62.37 per cent when compared to 1.59 billion dollars recorded in the first half of 2021.
