Don't Miss

NEXIM Bank offers N300bn loan guarantee to exporters

By BusinessNews Staff on November 30, 2014

The Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM) has said it offered N300 billion as funding support to Nigerian exporters in 2014 as part of its commitment to boost credible non-oil exports.
Making the disclosure at the 2014 Non-oil Export and Investment Development Conference organised by Business Journal recently in Lagos, the organisation’s Managing Director, Mr. Robert Orya, said NEXIM had been working on deepening export-import trade and attracting foreign investments.
Orya, who was represented by the Head of Strategic Planning of NEXIM, Tayo Omidigi, said over $1.3 billion in foreign exchange had been facilitated through the bank, financially intervened in guarantees with over N100 billion and created 2,000 direct jobs.

The NEXIM boss also stressed the need for diversification of the Nigerian economy so as to make it less dependent on oil.
He urged stakeholders to look deeper into avenues that would induce growth to develop the sector.
He expressed disappointment that the country failed to invest in the non-oil sector especially in oil palm in the past, even as he bemoaned the country’s low level of agriculture productivity.
According to him, in other countries, 10 per cent or more of their budgets are allocated to agriculture while Nigeria budgets just three per cent to the sector, resulting to persistent low records in the raw solid minerals of the non-oil sector.
Orya further listed the non-availability of long-term funds, poor infrastructure and transportation constraints as part of factors that have continued to hamper trade and investment with other countries.
Also speaking on the theme, “Nigeria – Beyond Oil and Gas,” the Group Managing Director of Mutual Benefit Group, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi decried Nigeria’s heavy dependence on oil over the years, saying that it has adversely affected the agriculture sector.
He stated that the drastic drop in the price of oil was a wake-up call on the country to turn the economy around to become multi-faceted.
“It is incumbent on us as a country to pay much deserved attention to agricultural products, move towards greater industrialisation, develop our solid minerals and revive other sectors of the economy,” Ogunbiyi asserted.
On his part, the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Business Journal, Prince Cookey urged government and people of Nigeria to look beyond oil in order to the living condition of the populace.
He also called for an expansion of the country revenue base so as to reduce and sustain economic growth.

[ThisDay]

headline