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The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Zenith Bank Plc., Ebenezer Onyeagwu, has said Nigeria needs more revenue from the non-oil sector which can be achieved by diversifying the economy.
The theme of a webinar organized by the bank in Lagos captioned: “Prospects of non-oil export during and Post-COVID-19”, was spoken about in a lengthen discussion on Wednesday
According to him, COVID-19 pandemic has led to drop in crude oil demand and prices, exposing Nigeria’s over reliance on crude oil earnings and susceptibility to oil-related shocks, where events of the last couple of months have shown limited volume of Nigeria’s value-added products for exports.
Mr. Onyeagwu listed the gains of improving non-oil export, including the opportunities in the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), expected to create a continent-wide market of 1.2 billion people. There is also combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion and about $4 trillion in consumer and business spending.
Commending the efforts of the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to deepen the non-oil export business in the country, Mr. Onyeagwu urged players in the non-oil export value-chain including exporters and financial institutions to play their part in the drive towards expanding the nation’s non-oil export base.
Director of Trade & Exchange, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs. Ozoemena Nnaji, commended Zenith Bank for organizing the webinar at a time like this, observed that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for the country.
She called for a deeper policy look at the non-oil sector to find ways of genuinely improving the quality and quantity of our non-oil export goods.
The Chief Executive/Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Olusegun Awolowo also commended the efforts of Zenith bank in promoting non-oil export business in Nigeria, describing the bank as ‘the Export Trade Bank of Nigeria’.
