Nigeria Plans to Cut Trade Deficit With UK, Says NEPC Boss

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Segun Awolowo, has said Nigeria is making serious plans to improve on her trade balance with the United Kingdom.

He said the country currently has a trade deficit of about $30 billion.

Awolowo, whose agency is responsible for promoting the country’s export, said part of the new thinking by the federal government is to take advantage of emerging trade potential as a result of Britain’s move to exit the European Union common market bloc.

Speaking in an interview with THISDAY’s sister media network, the ARISE Television in Abuja, Awolowo said government had identified 11 potential areas of investment under the recently launched Nigerian Economic Recovery Lifeline to boost export trade.

He said the measures being pursued to achieve the economic targets set by government is to try and improve on our productivity and productive capacity

On what his organisation is doing to position the country for a mutually rewarding trade relations with Great Britain, Awolowo said: “We in Nigeria traded only one commodity with the UK over the years, that is oil. In fact we never added value to it and we

are just about making a serious attempt to diversify the economy.”

NEPC boss said the federal government had last week released the Nigerian Economic Recovery Lifeline which contains what will be used to get over the recession.

He explained that there would be strong emphasis on export drive, adding that “once we are able to trade on other things, we will have a favorable balance in our trade deficit.

Awolowo also highlighted some of the measures to help boost the country’s exports, saying: “What we are doing at NEPC is what we call the zero altar.

“We are saying let’s imagine that Nigeria has no oil at all, the plan is all about increased productivity, raising the productive capacity of Nigerians . We gave identified 11 sectors where we will say look these are the areas that Nigeria should go into so that we can earn money,” he said.

Speaking about the country’s recession, the NEPC boss said the main reason we are in that situation is due to lack of foreign exchange and our inability to generate enough foreign exchange. He said that major cause of our predicament is our propensity for high import as against low export trade.

“Nigeria’s trade figure in 2014 is just $17billion, in 2015 it came down to $15 billion and 2016 the figure was a little over $40 billion. So we have a deficit of over $30 billion, while we have an import bill of about $50 billion.”

Awolowo expressed the hope that with proper implementation of the economic blue print, especially with the emphasis on diversification of the economy, Nigeria can benefit from the opportunities from the Brexit phenomenon.

“So Britain is very key, they are our largest foreign direct investment partner and this is the time we are keen in getting them to invest in the manufacturing industry in Nigeria. So that market is very big and very attractive,” he added.