Musbau Babatunde
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC),has launched an Export Trade House (ETH) in Hunan Province, China,as part of the moves to increase the export of Made-in-Nigerian products in China.
Executive Director/CEO of NEPC, Dr. Ezra Yakusak,who disclosed this,while commissioning the ETH,said that in 2022, China was third on the list of top ten Nigerian export destinations with a total export performance of $375.185 million.
He explained that he establishment of the ETH is a collaborative effort between the NEPC and Zeenab Foods Limited under a public-private-partnership arrangement.
According to him,the ETH is targeted at improving sustainable trade inflows between Nigeria and China, increasing the share of Nigerian products in target markets as well as increasing foreign exchange inflows into the economy among others.
He said that the council in partnership with Zeennab Foods Limited has lined up several activities and programmes such as B2B meetings, Business and Investment Forum, meetings with business leaders and government officials as well as factory visits to end users of some of the Nigerian commodities to be traded in the facility such as sesame seeds.
He also stated that the NEPC was appointed as a competent authority in Nigeria for the General Administration of Chinese Customs (GACC) of the Peoples Republic of China.
“The GACC is a new clearance system introduced by the Customs Department of China which requires all overseas food manufacturers, processors, and storage facilities to register under the system to ensure compliance with Chinese import policies”, he added.
Yakusak said the NEPC has registered 34 companies and eleven different products under the scheme to ensure that Nigerian goods meet the requirements,
These products, according to him, are Sorghum/millet, Sesame seed, Soya beans, dried split Ginger, Cocoa beans, Cashew nuts, dried cassava chips, and Hibiscus flowers among others.
He implored Chinese companies to maximise the opportunities in the Nigerian economy by establishing factories that will produce value-added products for export to China and the global market.
With the opening of the China ETH, the Council has now launched and operationalised a total of four ETHS which are located in Cairo, Egypt, Lome in Togo, and Nairobi in Kenya, while China is the fourth.
Speaking, the Ambassador of Nigeria to China,Baba Ahmad Jidda, pointed out that the ETH is a strategic tool that will address the challenge of dwindling revenue from oil given that the world is moving away from oil to renewable energy.
“The launch of the Nigerian ETH is indeed a great foundation on which to strengthen and sustain the bilateral relationship existing between both countries,” he added.