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The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, has called for a shift from exporting raw commodities to processing more products locally to enable Nigeria to retain greater value from its exports.
Oduwole made the call at the 10th edition of Zenith Bank’s International Trade Seminar, where she said the country’s export strategy must now focus not only on increasing export volumes but also on creating more value within Nigeria.
She said Nigeria’s non-oil exports rose to about $6.1 billion in 2025, representing an 11.5 per cent increase, with more than eight million metric tonnes of products shipped to international markets.
According to her, the country exported about $1.4 billion worth of non-oil products in the first quarter of 2026 alone, covering 173 products and 105 countries.
“The question before us now is not simply how to export more, but how to retain more value in Nigeria from everything we export,” she said.
Oduwole said the ministry’s focus was to “produce more competitively in Nigeria, process more in Nigeria, and connect Nigerian businesses to bigger markets” while ensuring that financing, infrastructure and trading systems were available to support expansion.
She said agricultural commodities should be processed locally, manufacturers encouraged to produce at scale for export, and natural resources developed into sophisticated value chains instead of being shipped abroad as raw materials.
Using shea as an example, the minister said Nigeria’s policy on raw shea nut exports was aimed at creating opportunities for processing, aggregation, investment, quality improvement and reliable markets.
“Our policy direction on raw shea nut exports is therefore about more than restricting an export; it is about creating the conditions for processing, aggregation, investment, quality, and reliable markets so that Nigeria captures a greater share of the global value created from a resource we already produce at scale,” she said.
Oduwole, who assumed the chairmanship of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Council of Ministers in July, said the African market offered Nigerian businesses an opportunity to expand beyond the country.
She noted that AfCFTA provides access to a market of more than 1.4 billion people and an economy estimated at about $3.4 trillion.
She said Nigeria’s position as an AfCFTA digital trade co-champion would also help Nigerian businesses access customers across Africa through digital channels.
The minister cited a recent trade mission to Botswana, where Nigerian producers of ready-made meals, agro-processed products, snacks, cosmetics, textiles and other value-added goods were connected with retailers and distributors across four Southern African countries.
She said some of the companies had already begun processing significant sample transactions.
“That is what successful trade policy looks like: a Nigerian product leaving a Nigerian factory and finding a paying customer in another African market,” Oduwole said.
She also highlighted improvements in logistics, saying the Nigeria-Eastern and Southern Africa air cargo corridor had helped reduce freight costs by as much as 75 per cent compared with comparable market rates.
According to her, export volumes on the corridor increased by about 40 per cent by May 2026.
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On product standards, Oduwole said 220 Nigerian products from 131 companies received the ARSO Africa Quality Mark in June, while the Nigerian Export Promotion Council trained more than 96,000 people through 728 programmes last year and supported 210 small and medium enterprises with fully funded international certifications.
She said the government was also simplifying trade procedures through the National Single Window, whose first phase went live in March.
By July 28, the platform had processed more than 96,000 licences and permits, registered over 10,000 importers and agents, transmitted more than 1,600 cargo manifests and facilitated about N9.3 billion in payments.
Oduwole said the next phase would focus on exports, bringing permits, certificates, inspections, payments and other processes into a more coordinated system.
She stressed that access to finance remained critical to the success of exporters.
“Exporters need working capital to fulfill orders and longer-term financing for equipment, processing, storage, packaging, logistics, and certification,” she said.
The minister commended Zenith Bank and other financial institutions and fintechs for supporting exporters, noting that Zenith accounted for about $450 million, or 32 per cent, of the value recorded under the Nigerian Export Proceeds mechanism in the first quarter of 2026, according to the NEPC.
She, however, challenged banks to move beyond financing individual export transactions to financing businesses capable of achieving scale.
“The opportunity now is to move from financing individual export transactions to financing export scale,” she said.
Oduwole said Nigeria’s ambition should be to develop regional champions capable of competing across Africa and eventually the global market.
She identified food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, building materials, textiles, digital services, manufactured goods and creative products as sectors with strong export potential.
She also said Nigeria’s hosting of the Intra-African Trade Fair and CANEX in Lagos would provide a major platform for Nigerian businesses to access new markets.
With more than 100,000 participants expected and a target of facilitating over $50 billion in trade and investment transactions, she urged Nigerian businesses to prepare with competitive products, prices, standards, production capacity and financing.
“Our responsibility now is to connect those pieces into a system that makes exporting from Nigeria easier, faster, more competitive, and more profitable,” she said.
Oduwole urged Zenith Bank and other financial institutions to identify businesses with the potential to become regional champions and provide the capital needed to scale.
“If we do this successfully, the story of Nigeria’s export economy will no longer be one of potential or nascent progress, but supreme performance,” she said.
She added: “Let us use this platform not merely to discuss the opportunity, but to act on it: produce more, process more, export, and more importantly, retain more value in Nigeria.”
