Over time, there has been a reduction in Nigeria’s dependence on the oil sector as its main source of revenue.
There have also been laudable efforts by the federal government in making sure that Nigeria looks beyond oil and focus on the huge potentials that could sustain the economy, create jobs and expand the market.
It is in view of this, that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), unveiled a foreign exchange revenue expansion scheme called ‘Race to $200 billion in FX Repatriation (RT200FX) Programme.
Announcing this programme on Thursday during his Post-Bankers Committee press briefing in Abuja, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele revealed that the programme stands for the “Race to US$@200billion in FX Repatriation”.
According to the CBN Governor, the RT200 FX Programme is a set of policies, plans and programmes for non-oil exports, which will enable the country attain her lofty, yet attainable goal of US$200 billion in FX repatriation, exclusively from non-oil exports, over the next 3-5 years.
“The RT200 Programme will thrive on five key anchors namely, Value-Adding Exports Facility, Non-Oil Commodities Expansion Facility, Non-Oil FX Rebate Scheme, Dedicated Non-Oil Export Terminal and Biannual Non-Oil Export Summit”, he stressed.
He also noted that the Value-Adding Export Facility will provide concessionary and long-term funding for business people, who are interested in expanding existing plants or building brand new ones for the sole purpose of adding significant value to our non-oil commodities before exporting same.
He said: “This is important because the export of primary unprocessed commodities does not yield much in foreign exchange. In Nigeria today, we produce about 770,000 metric tonnes of Sesame, Cashew and Cocoa.
“Of this number, about 12,000 metric tonnes are consumed locally and 758,000 metric tonnes are exported. The unfortunate thing though, is that out of the 758,000 metric tonnes that is exported annually, only 16.8 percent is processed.”
While calling on all state governments who have existing ports to partner with the CBN and the Bankers Committee on this initiative, he noted that the collaboration would not only encourage the establishment of a dedicated export terminal, but also the entire ecosystem of world-class infrastructure needed for non-oil exports.
According to him, a massive boost in the production of non-oil commodities will help dampen/moderate the prices of these commodities, so that the expected increase in demand for them does not become a pressure point for aggregate prices in the market.
Investors King recalls that Fidelity bank had also launched a non-oil export initiative in 2016.
Its Export Management Programme (EMP), was established to bridge the knowledge gap in the export business locally and to help participants of the programme to compete effectively in the global export market.