Nigeria Accounts for 1% of African Imports

• Nigeria Accounts for 1% of African Imports

The international trade centre report released for 2017 showed that Nigeria accounted for only one per cent of the total African imports.

While this is discouraging, it also shows opportunities and supports the case for improved Intra African trade engagements, stated Olusegun Awolowo, the Executive Director, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).

According to him, a thorough look at Africa’s products demand from around the world shows Nigeria is suitably positioned to replace supplies from other regions of the world on some key products.

He said: “Looking at Nigeria’s export potential, while regions in Europe, Asia and North America present the greatest potential markets, African sub-regions feature among the top 10 markets. We found that four of Africa’s high demand products are among Nigeria’s 11 priority products identified to diversify our export base under our Zero Oil Plan. These export potential products signify investment opportunities along value chains for each sector.

“Among the landmark partnerships are loan agreements signed between the Dangote Group for $650million and the Bank of Industry (BoI) for $750million.”