FG allocates N881m to boost non-oil exports

The Federal Government has allocated N881.13m to total capital projects of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council in the 2026 Appropriation Bill, following an all-time high non-oil export record of $6.1bn in 2025.

Data from the 2026 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly showed that the allocation targets institutional strengthening, export infrastructure, certification, market access, and value-chain development across the six geopolitical zones.

The allocation is included in the proposed N58.47tn federal budget, and growing policy emphasis on diversifying foreign exchange earnings away from crude oil.

A breakdown of the NEPC capital vote showed that the highest allocation of N143.99m went to the establishment of clusters, aggregation centres, and hubs in the six geopolitical zones, and N133m was set aside for the establishment of common facility centres and export skills acquisition centres in four geopolitical zones for top regional products.

The government also earmarked N84m for institutional strengthening to improve the operational efficiency of the NEPC.

Other allocations included N77m for implementing relevant certification for Nigerian exporters and SMEs under the ‘Go Global, Go Certification’ initiative, N70m each for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, participation in international trade fairs and trade missions, and developing the services sector and facilitating SME exporters’ market access through e-commerce and digital trade.

The budget further provided N63m for a standard trade development facility on sesame seed and cowpea, N49m for the operationalisation and licensing of domestic export warehouses, and N42m to increase non-oil exports through the formalisation of informal cross-border trade and the expansion of women- and youth-led businesses.

The lowest allocations included N21m each for the verification and computerisation of the council’s fixed assets at its headquarters and the purchase and rent of out-of-home digital advertising billboards to promote non-oil exports in Abuja and the six regions. Lastly, N37.14m was allocated to implementing innovations in accounting practices for budget management and financial disclosure.

The funding follows the January report that Nigeria’s non-oil exports rose to $6.1bn in 2025. The PUNCH reported that it was the highest level recorded since the NEPC’s establishment nearly 50 years ago.

The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NEPC, Nonye Ayeni, said the figure was based on records from pre-shipment inspection agencies. She said, the figure was “Nigerian non-oil export performance in 2025 reached an all-time high. The non-oil export sector rose to approximately 6.1bn U.S. dollars, representing a year-on-year growth of about 11.5 per cent over and above the 5.4bn U.S. dollars recorded in 2024.”

Ayeni added, “This marks the highest non-oil export value achieved in the country for formal documented trade in the country and also from the inception of the council almost 50 years ago. So we have indeed beaten our own records of last year.”

She said the performance cut across agricultural commodities, processed and semi-processed goods, industrial inputs, and solid minerals, adding that Nigeria exported 281 non-oil products in 2025, reflecting gradual progress in value addition and integration into global value chains. However, she cautioned that a significant volume of trade still occurred informally across land borders.

In telephone interviews with The PUNCH, stakeholders welcomed the allocation and the export growth but called for clearer data disaggregation and a stronger focus on value addition.

The Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, hailed the NEPC’s capital project allocation, encouraging more focus on processed non-oil exports. He said, “I think it’s a welcome development. (On the non-oil export of $6.1bn in 2025 as reported by NEPC): It appears that there is no disaggregation to know which one is manufactured products, services, and so on.”

Ajayi-Kadir affirmed that growth in non-oil exports aligned with long-standing government ambitions to diversify the economy, but stressed that sustainability depended on moving up the value chain. He said, “What is most critical for us is to know whether those non-oil export items have any added value, and whether we have maximised the potential in those areas, or whether we have just deepened our subservient position in volume.”

MAN’s DG linked the issue to the proposed 30 per cent value-addition bill before the National Assembly, adding, “What will only be important is that we ensure that it is an increase that has to do with value addition, because that is the one that will create jobs and is more insulated from the vagaries of the international environment.”

Similarly, the National Vice President of the National Association of Small-Scale Industrialists, Segun Kuti-George, commended the government’s support for the council, saying the NEPC’s role in training and exposing MSMEs to export markets had been significant.

Kuti-George said, “It is good news that Nigeria is getting more serious about the issue of non-oil export, and the contribution of NEPC honestly cannot be overemphasised.”

He added, “Whatever money is allocated to them, I don’t have any problem with that, as long as it is to encourage them to do more of what they are doing and to position our entrepreneurs and businesses well so that their goods can be exported, beginning from Africa.”

NASSI’s VP confirmed that the NEPC has engaged its members, stating, “Besides their organising training seminars, conferences internally for MSMEs to understand export, they are also encouraging MSMEs to exhibit both within and outside the country. They took some of our people to Egypt, some to Algeria, and they were fully funded. They went to exhibit their goods. That’s a good development.”

Culled from punch