SO, WHAT IS EXPORT?
The sale of home-made goods and services which could be either produce, raw materials, spare parts,
semi-finished or finished goods or consulting services from your home base into foreign markets resulting
in the in-flow of money – called export proceeds – is what is known as exporting.
Exporting, as I‘ve already mentioned at the start of this article, is one half of what is known as international
trading. The problem with Nigeria is that too much focus has been on developing structures to support
the other half (importing) at the expense of exporting.
IN NIGERIA, BARRIERS TO BE ADDRESSED
In export, it is important to note that there are rules and issues an exporter must pay attention to
including but not limited to the rules of origin, payments in an agreed currency, distance, language,
INCOTERMS, Letter of Credit (L/C) with validity dates, Country of origin, mode of transport etc.
All too often, we blame our export deficits on external factors but it is important to address the barriers
to exports in Nigeria, as well as our own inability to develop sustainable routes to foreign markets over
the decades.
The reasons for the country‘s deficits in non-oil exports can essentially be summarized under three sub-
headings: (i) emphasis on produce trade, (ii) poor educational support and (iii) poor co-ordination between
government agencies.
Over the years and through to today, institutional efforts to increase non-oil exports from Nigeria has
continued to emphasize exports of primary commodities (raw materials, unprocessed agricultural produce,
unprocessed crude oil, etc) and little to no emphasis on adding value to these produce before exports.
On the part of academic institutions, there is a significant disconnect between what these universities pass
of as agricultural education and what is obtainable in the real world. With over 200 institutions of higher
learning in the country (universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, etc), very little investment in
research & development (R/D) and the linkages to industry and innovation are missing. The need to
upgrade the curriculum to reflect current trends and market demands cannot be overstated.
On the part of government - ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) – are working at cross-
purposes with too much emphasis on revenue generation as an indicator of success. Sadly, most of the
revenue targets focus on imports and too little on exports.
Ambassadors are not educated to act as effective promoters of Nigerian products and the government
does very little to create linkages between the Nigerian producers and Nigerians in diaspora who ought to
play the role of marketing managers of ―made in Nigeria‖ goods like the ―China-town‖ concept across the
country.
These are some of the barriers to the growth of non-oil exports in Nigeria and these are the principal
reasons why Nigeria is still unable to take advantage of trade agreements like AGOA, ECOWAS, D8,
WTO among others. These are self-inflicted, home-grown trade barriers and without addressing these
issues, we will continue to perform poorly in exports, regardless of the number of free trade agreements
we sign.