The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has urged exporters to move beyond the shipment of raw commodities and embrace value addition to earn better returns in the international market.
The Council’s North-Central Zonal Coordinator, Mrs Juliet Omonke, gave the charge in Jos on Tuesday on the sidelines of a gemstone cutting and polishing training organised by the NEPC.
Omonke said value addition remained critical to improving the profitability of exports, regardless of the sector, urging exporters in Plateau State to process their products before taking them to the international market.
“My call to exporters and potential exporters on the Plateau is that no matter the sector they are playing in, whether agricultural commodities, gemstone or the manufacturing sector, value addition, value addition, value addition.
“It can never be overemphasised. When you add value to your product, you get a higher price.
“We want to be known in the international market as people that export finished products, not raw materials or commodities.
“We want to scale it up and move higher to the level of value addition. That is what the Nigerian Export Promotion Council canvasses and promotes,” she stated.
The zonal coordinator said the Council would continue to train and sensitise exporters as part of efforts to expand Nigeria’s non-oil export sector and reduce the country’s dependence on crude oil.
She said the volume and value of Nigeria’s export basket had continued to increase, stressing that greater participation in exports remained important to economic growth.
“We continue to encourage those in the export sector to export. It is only then that we can truly grow our economy. The mono economy is not doing anybody any good, and we are very happy at NEPC that the export basket, in terms of volume and value, has continued to increase,” Omonke said.
Also speaking, the Director of Exploration and Gemological Services, Plateau State Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Mineral Development, Mr Jaryum Samuel, commended the NEPC for organising the training, describing it as an opportunity for residents to derive greater economic benefits from the state’s mineral resources.
Samuel urged exporters and prospective exporters to continually seek ways of adding value to their products, saying Plateau was endowed with mineral resources capable of supporting economic opportunities for its people.
“Such opportunities open our eyes to know that we are sitting on wealth, and we are going to make use of the potential we have in Plateau to gain from.
“This training will take our children out of the street, our widows and the rest that are there. It will equally train them how to do it because it’s not something that you use heavy equipment for, but something that within your own backyard you can do.
“We cannot continue to rely on oil. One day oil will deplete; where do we go to? Most of Plateau is endowed with all kinds of mineral resources,” he said.
Samuel described the gemstone cutting and polishing training as a privilege for Plateau residents, saying it would help create a better understanding of how the state’s mineral resources could be developed and commercialised.
He said greater attention to local processing and value addition would enable residents to derive more benefits from the resources available in the state.
