The Executive Director/CEO, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Ezra Yakusak, yesterday said the Council has disbursed N308.45billion promissory notes to 199 exporting firms with the nod of the Federal Government under the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) scheme.
Yakusak spoke at the presentation of the first half of the year progress report on non-oil export performance for the year in Abuja, assuring that the scheme has since been completed in the period under review.

The Executive Director noted that at the conclusion of the EEG Inter-Ministerial Monitoring Committee, the Committee approved the presentation of the 2021-2022 EEG claims for consideration and subsequent submission to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.

He said a presentation was made last April on Non-oil performance which amounted to $1.345 billion, indicating an 8.50 per cent increase against the figure of $1.249 billion for the first quarter of last year. However, the sector recorded a slight dip in the value of export in the first half-year of the year.

“The non-oil export returns from the various Pre-Shipment Inspection Agents indicated that 3,944,344.17 metric tonnes of products worth $2.539 billion was exported in the first half of 2023 (January to June 2023) as against the $2.593 billion for the corresponding period of 2022. From these figures, it is apparent that a slight decrease of 0.09 per cent was recorded in the period under review,” he said.

He lamented that the volume of inter-African trade is still very low, as he states that it is glaring considering the fact that no African country made it to the top 15 importers of Nigerian products. In summary, 164, 748.75 metric tonnes of products valued at $55.085 million were exported to various African countries.

SOURCE: THENATION