Crusoe Osagie
16 March 2008
Lagos — The Federal Government yesterday, put the value of non-oil export from Nigeria in 2007 at about $1.38 billion, up from the $751.5 million announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2006.
The $628.4 million increase represents about 45.5 Per cent growth in the nation's income from non-oil products.
Minister of Commerce and Industry, Charles Ugwuh, who disclosed the figure in Lagos, said the increase in value of non-oil export was an indication that the economy was on the right track, adding that it was to sustain the momentum of this growth in the non-oil sector that his ministry refused to endorse the European Union/Africa Caribbean and Pacific Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
He said signing into EPA would have in a few years, eaten deep into steady growth that is now being witnessed in the non-oil sector in the country. "The EPA is a contentious issue, but we must understand the logic of what government is doing. We have between 35 and 40 per cent cost handicap as a result of our poor infrastructure, so it we throw our boarders open to all sorts of European goods like EPA demands, our industry would be killed. So this is why Nigeria is careful in dealing with the issue.
"Our non-oil export figure now stands at about $1.38 billion in 2007. In 2001, the figure was around $240 million. Now we have tried to increase this figure to almost $1.4 billion and all this revenue is at stake if we endorse the EPA. Whereas the cost of not signing into the EPA is in the region of $100 million and $200 million," Ugwuh said.
He said the present administration is not just seeking any kind of investment from the international investment community, but is in search of investments in strategic sectors such as petro-chemical. The Gulf of Guinea will be the major supplier of hydro-carbons and so, if we have petro-chemical plants, Urea plants and other fertilizer plants, we would be able to get into the international market not just with our primary product, petroleum, but with value added petro-chemical products. If we sell a tonne of unrefined petroleum, we probably earn about $200, but when we add value to that one tonne of petroleum, we can earn as high as $800 and $1,600 depending on the amount of value added," he said.
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