•‘ COVID- 19 scenario reflects future of oil’

al economic managers could not continue to ignore.

If the RT200 scheme is properly impl emented, she said: “It will help us to earn more sustainable FX, reduce exposure to volatile FX, increase export, which we need to achieve and help to diversify from oil.”

According to her , unstructured procedure, corruption and rejection of the countr y’s exports are some of the threats to the scheme. These, she said, must be addressed urgently as necessary steps towards making a success of the initiative.

Bamidele Ayemibo, a trade expert, who gave a keynote at the series, charged the country to urgently tackle the conception risk posed by overdependence on crude as a source of FX earning.

Ayemibo picked on the height of the COVID- 19 crisis in 2020 when oil prices dropped to a negative region, saying that it represents the future of hydrocarbon.

Arguing that non- oil export is the most sustainable FX earner at the moment, he pointed to people, process and payment as some of the most challenged areas that must be addressed to grow the non- oil economy.

The expert said the impacts of the Russian- Ukraine war are real with “countries that are ready already taking advantage of the supply gap created by the crisis”.

He noted that Nigeria could leverage the challenge to its advantage but added that hard decisions have to be made to catch up with what other countries around the world are doing in that regard. Part of the quick actions that must be made includes growing valueadded products, which will require agro- processors partnering farmers.