Nigeria Earns N472bn From Cocoa, Others - Business -

The country earned a total sum of $2.4bn (N472bn) from the exportation of cocoa, rubber, and other non-oil commodities within the 2014 fiscal period, figures obtained from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council have revealed. The country’s export figure of $2.4bn for 2014, according to trade statistics from the NEPC, represents a decline of 19.19 per cent over the $2.97bn (N585bn) earned in the previous year. A breakdown of the non-oil receipts of $2.4bn showed that cocoa exports with a total amount of $666.45m accounted for the highest non-oil export earnings, followed by raw hides, skins and leather with $487.97m. Others are oil seeds, grains and plant/straw, amounting to $389.78m; aluminium, $113.35m; tobacco, $109.05m; tins, $96.32m; edible fruits and nuts, $75.24m; rubbers, $70.03m and footwear, $62.89m. The rest are copper, $59.6m; fish and crustaceans, $55.68m; plastics, $54.63m; lead, $46.65m; nickel, $27.35m; cottons, yarns and woven, $21.87m. In terms of country of destination, the NEPC document indicated that Netherlands, with a total amount of $456.96m, accounted for Nigeria’s highest non-oil export revenue. Others are ECOWAS, $350.8m; Italy, $344.21m; Japan, $211.25m; India, $209.4m; Turkey, $116.8m; Spain, $102.2m; Germany, $100.97m; China, $86.3m; Vietnam, $85.4m and the United States, $81.6m. Similarly, Nigeria’s total exports to South Korea stood at $74.2m in 2014; Hong Kong, $62.3m; Malaysia, $41.7m while Belgium, the United Kingdom and Canada stood at $39.6m, $39.5m and $29.7m, respectively. The Chief Executive Officer, NEPC, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, said the agency had been at the forefront of the diversification of the Nigerian economy, adding that this had been further reinforced by the recent decline in the price of crude oil in the global market. While admitting that the drop in the price of oil had led to reductions in government revenue with pronounced negative effects on different sectors of the economy, he said that NEPC had identified 13 National Strategic Export Products to replace oil. The 13 products are palm oil, cocoa, cashew, sugar, rice, iron ore, metals, aluminium, and auto parts. Others are petroleum products, fertilizer/urea, petrochemicals and methanol. He said, “The expectations we have is to explore the possibility of investing in priority areas that we have highlighted. “We need to attract counterpart investments into priority areas by investors such as the agricultural sector. We need to fastback trade event information and we want to support capacity development for exporters.” He said the potential of the 13 products, which cut across key sectors of the economy would be maximised through investments, capacity development, innovation and formidable partnerships