Nigeria made N428bn from non-oil export in the last one year, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, said on Thursday.
This feat, according to him, was achieved through proactive trade policies and incentives for non-oil exports introduced by the Ministry of Trade and Investment, adding that Nigeria has achieved a relatively high level of international penetration.
He spoke at the ministerial platform organised by the Ministry of Information to mark the President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s one year in office.
He said, “In 2011, Nigeria exported non-oil products to 103 countries and territories out of 220. This shows significant improvement over the previous years. There has been an increase in non-oil export to $2.765bn (N428bn at N155/$), representing an increase of 19 per cent.”
He added that the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) is critical to the growth of the Nigerian export market. “We have had wide consultations across all industry groups within the value chain of each commodity. New guidelines on EEG are expected shortly.”
The minister also disclosed that actual investments in Nigeria’s Free Trade Zones currently stood at $11.1 billion, adding that 35,120 new jobs had been created in the zones.
Giving the breakdown of the investment inflows into the FTZs, the minister stated that the Onne Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone, in Rivers State, has attracted investment worth $6billion, noting that investment commitments in the FTZ were worth $6.7 billion in the last one year.
He added that other Free Trade Zones across the country under the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority also generated $4.4bn investment in the last one year, noting, however, that the Ministry of Trade and Investment was currently reviewing the operations of the Free Trade Zones to make them more functional.
Overall, Aganga said that Nigeria has secured over N6.6 trillion investment commitments over the last one year. “The breakdown of the total investment commitment showed that expected FDI into the country stood at N3.9 billion, while investment commitment from local investors stood at N2.7trillion,” he stated.
 
 
Reference: http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/markets/investor/37095-nigeria-records-n428bn-on-non-oil-export-in-one-year-aganga-