By; ABUBAKAR RABILU, Gombe
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), has organised a one-day workshop of training the trainer on Upscaling Production on OSOP product in Gombe.
In his remarks, the Regional Coordinator, Mr. Okorie J. O. stated that the workshop was organised to benefit the people of North-East.
Okorie said, the council is in the forefront of championing the increase in production of the OSOP products in the region, as the theme shows.
According to him, the major way of doing this, is to have in-depth knowledge of the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) of these products, implement the knowledge and provide an enabling environment for the farmers aimed at boosting the state economy if duly implemented.
” I implore all the stakeholders in this workshop to take charge of working on this concept to assist in boosting the export potentials of various states in the North East.”
Mr. Okorie explained that the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has introduced Domestic Export Warehouse (DEW) which will address the high level of rejection of non-oil exports to the global market, full Operationalization and effective patronage of approved DEW would also reduce the number of checks along the export corridor from the hinterland to port of shipment.
He therefore, said the council has taken a bold step to initiate the concept and set up Domestic Export Warehouse (DEW) as one of the solutions to ease supply chain constraint in Nigeria.
“The efforts of the council in the promotion of non oil has paid off, thus in 2022, for instance, Nigeria’s total export was put at about $4.82billion which is 39.91% higher over 2021 and $1.34billion in the first quarter of 2023 representing 8.5% increase over first quarter 2022. A total of 167 products were exported ranging from manufactured, semi-processed, solid mineral and raw agricultural commodities including soya beans, sesame seeds etc,” he said.
Earlier, the Director of Finance and Administration in the ministry of trade industry and tourism Balarabe Musa, said that the occasion could not have come at a better time than now, when the general economic mood of the country is geared towards fast tracking the products in the state to international level as the most veritable panacea for employment generation, wealth creation and poverty Alleviation
He said the ministry is billed to repositioning the index of export promotion and enhance the production of OSOP in their respective states.
Adding that, “it is an undisputed fact that, the Nigeria Export Promotion council has remained the most veritable tool for stimulation of Economic growth and development.
“Today’s Programme may not be unconnected to the council’s drive to accelerate the actualization and advancement of the non-oil export to a greater landscape.”
Balarabe Musa explained that the efforts put by the Gombe State in the establishment of Muhammadu Buhari Industrial Park, Dadin Kowa project is conceived to provide thousands of direct and indirect jobs create competitiveness of local manufactured goods contribute to gross domestic product (GDP) and principally attracting of genuine local and foreign investors to the state.
The park is considered to serve as the state export processing zone.
He said the other investment made by the state for the enhancement of export promotion is the establishment of the industrial cluster aimed at promotion of oil and rice processing in large quantities for export
