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Steve Agbota, [email protected]
Every economy across the globe has witnessed the adverse effects of COVID-19. Factories are shutdown, companies laying off workers and salaries slashed. In fact, virtually all the nations were on lockdown as the pandemic grounded the world economy.
As the world gradually eases the lockdown and open up the economy in phases, all countries have been thinking out of the box on how to survive and sustain their economies and job challenges post COVID-19 pandemic. These nations are looking at various angles where they have comparative advantage to kick their economy rolling.
However, experts have identified the Nigerian ports as to where Nigeria has huge comparative advantage through export to tackle post COVID-19 pandemic because it has enormous export products whose potential can be harnessed to generate foreign exchange, create jobs and grow the GDP.
Historically, the non-oil export sector has been abandoned by various successive governments in the country. Despite being neglected, the sector has contributed tremendously to the nation’s economy over the years. For instance, in 2019, Nigeria earned N2.5 trillion from non-oil export alone. While N344 billion was recorded in 2016, N629 billion in 2017 and in 2018, Nigeria raked in N1.1 trillion from non-oil export. The revenue government rakes in from the sector keeps rising every year despite the fact that Nigeria took an unfortunate back stage position in export of various commodities.
Most of these revenues were recorded from various agricultural products that are high in demand across the Europe, America and Asian countries. These commodities include; garlic, ginger, cashew nuts, cocoa, palm kernel and groundnut, dry fish among others.
Now that the price of crude oil has fallen deastically, it is high time the Federal Government focused on creating a non-oil export oriented economy to solve the economic challenges presented to Nigeria by the Coronavirus pandemic, according to economists.
For Nigeria to have seamless export system, there is need for dedicated shipping lines for export and also, the Federal Government should find a lasting solutions and remove the bottlenecks that pose hindrances to export cargoes in the country. The issue of Apapa gridlock and other obstacles at the ports should be tackled.
Speaking with Daily Sun, the Managing Director of Universal Quest Nigeria, Mr. Sotonye Anga, said the Nigerian ports have to be proactive and more efficient in handling export cargoes, adding that there should be a dedicated shipping lines for agriculture products to move.
He added: “Doing that, you are diversifying the economy. The pressure on the Naira right now is so much with the fall in prices of crude oil. That is the reality we are facing now. We need diversifying income streams and this is where agriculture should come to the rescue. So if agriculture is going to come to the rescue, we have to ensure that our ports give agriculture exports top priority. This message should be very clear.
“The port operators, NPA, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the Customs and all of them should give agriculture export top priority as a means of diversification. All the delays and frustrations at export base should be taken away so that we can export more. If we export more, we will be able to earn more foreign exchange and if we earn more foreign exchange, there will be less pressure on Naira.”
According to him, there is need to get more dollars inflow into the country to reduce the pressure that is the one way to stabilise the exchange rate.
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, urged the Federal Government and all stakeholders to focus more on export, adding that it is what would sustain Nigerian economy post COVID-19.
He hinted that Nigeria lost so much revenue in crude oil export, and importation has equally dwindled seriously due to the pandemic that has grounded the world economy.
He added: “Export is going to be our main line now because import is going to trickle because there is a lot of disruptions in the international supply chain. Even China will not export what it used to export, they will like to keep it for domestic use.
“Now is the time to look inward and inward is not as in diversification but deliberate attempt to look at where we have comparative advantage and that is exportation. We can’t import now and even if we import, the throughput will dwindle.We have lost revenue in oil and due to the vulnerability of oil, we have to look at exportation.”
According to him, Nigeria is vast, so rich and would have been a substitute for China for raw materials, which Nigeria is going to process, saying that is why NSC calling on the government to focus on export.
The Chairman, Port Consultative Council (PCC), Otunba Kunle Folarin, has said that Nigeria must focus on developing a non oil export to develop the nation’s economy now that there is sharp drop in oil price.
He said the Covid 19 pandemic and the fall in oil price has further exposed the need for government to create policies that would encourage export produce where the country has comparative advantage.
“Where do we have the comparative advantage, it is in export. If we were producing enough in the 40s, 50s when there was no oil and we can build cocoa house, run the general hospitals, and the Nigerian airways even to London, we can do it now.
“If we are looking inward, we have to start with where we can control the flow, which is export. It has worked before because we have the comparative advantage and we dictate the price we are ready to sell. We can’t dictate the price we want to sell oil now; it is the buyers who dictate the price and the volume you should produce.”
