EU Plans Trade Programme to Improve Nigeria’s Exports

• EU Plans Trade Programme to Improve Nigeria’s Exports

The European Union is working on various trade facilitation programmes for Nigeria to enable the country to boost its level of agricultural exports to the European market without having to suffer huge rejection.

The Head of Cooperation, EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Kurt Cornelis, stated this during the opening session of West Africa Regional Quality System Project Steering Committee meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the move became imperative in order to avoid situations where Nigerian products were rejected abroad for lack of standards.

About 103 made-in-Nigeria products exported last year to countries in Europe were rejected by the EU for lack of conformity to the required standards for the EU products.

Cornelis said the West African Quality System Programme was imperative as it would create the favourable conditions for attracting investments in Nigeria and other West Africa countries.

He said the programme would focus on the competitiveness of the private sector, particularly in its ability to meet quality, safety, environmental and other standards demanded by the market for goods.

To support the private sector to produce goods that would meet the required standards, he said a solid regional quality infrastructure system must be put in place to promote culture of quality within the ECOWAS sub-region.