Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) says its vision is to make the world a market place for Nigerian non-oil export products.
Mrs Esther Ikporah, South-East Regional Coordinator of NEPC said this in Enugu at a capacity building workshop for non-oil exporters in the South-East region.
The theme of the training workshop was “unlocking the international market for export success.”
Ikporah expressed disappointment over the lukeworm attitude of entrepreneurs from the South-East region to engaging in non-oil export products using the channel provided by the NEPC.
She challenged entrepreneurs in the region to key into the opportunities offered by the Council I grow their expirt trade.
She said the NEPC recognised that a major challenge faced by potential and existing exporters was getting buyers for their goods and services.
Ikporah said the council was aware of the difficulty being faced by the exporters in spite of the quality of their products hence it was committed to assisting them in this regard.
She said: “The council is committed to assisting exporters access the international market.
“Indeed our vision is to make the world a market place for Nigerian non-oil export products.”
According to her, to demonstrate this determination, NEPC had created a department for this purpose and named it “market access department,” at it’s headquartered in Abuja.
Ikporah said that as part of its mandate NEPC the strived to match Nigerian exporters with potential foreign buyers by facilitating the participation of Nigerian exporters in international trade fairs.
Other ways include: “Putting in place quality parameters and certifications needed for successful export of goods; receiving and responding to trade enquires and setting up business enquires.”
The regional coordinator added that the council also organised capacity building/training workshops, seminars, sensitusation programmes and so on, on market access for non-oil export products.
Mr Anthony Odukwe, an international export consultant while delivering lecture said non-oil exporters needed to have vast knowledge of the international market procedures.
According to him, it was only with proper knowledge of basic rudiments of how to export their products that exporters can be ready to export.
