The Managing-Director, Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) Mr Abba Bello, has stressed the need for government at all levels to take measures to diversify the economy to enhance growth and create more job opportunities.
Bello expressed this view in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, saying there are two ways to grow the value of export, either you grow the basket or you put value unto your export.
According to him, what keeps the nation’s economy healthy is if a nation’s export is more than the import, as it makes the currency stronger, balance of trade larger and the economy active.
“It is important to diversify so that shocks in any of the commodities will not shock your economy.
“So what the government is pushing is to diversify the economy to reduce any shock in oil industry and to grow it so that it will contribute more in growth of revenue.
“As you diversify, you are also creating jobs because you are creating new activity, so it helps in building up the value of the economy.
“If it is the reverse you keep draining your economy, because there is more money going out than coming in and that is the situation now if we take out oil.’’
He also reiterated that the essence of diversification was to grow foreign exchange, especially diversification in export so as to diversify the export revenue earnings and grow it.
The managing-director also said “our exports have traditionally been primary products, that is in their natural state without any value addition.’’
“The primary products are exported because of so many reasons, prices, weather conditions even the output among others.
“Our objective is to ensure that we get better value for each crop that we are exporting out of the country; be it cocoa, sesame, cashew and soya among others.
“You get better value of the product by processing and moving up the value chain you are sometime multiplying the value for the same product and for the same quantity of product by three or four times.
“As we export primary products, we are also exporting our job, that is why today, we have so many youths that are unemployed. Once we produce from the farms, we aggregate it somewhere and take it out.’’
Bello said that the bank together with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was trying to promote and boost production of exportable crops.
He said after boosting the production, they would put processing plants at least one level up in the short term of the value chain then gradually grow it into products that are for consumption.
He also said that it had become important that today one thing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) does was to create regional and continental value chain.
“And if we do not move up to production value chain, some other people we do it.
“While we find ourselves exporting to our new boss for them to add value thereby, exporting our jobs, we must industrialise otherwise we will become a receiving nation.’’
Bello, however, said that processing most of the crops to the next level do not require a lot of technology or much cost.
“So, when we say a state will fund export commodities, we mean the production as well as putting some basic processing equipment with it through an aggregator.
