The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has said many Nigerian youths are yet to take advantage of the huge business opportunities available in the country’s non-oil export sector.
The Council said lack of knowledge about export procedures, market requirements and opportunities had continued to keep many young entrepreneurs away from international markets.
The NEPC Regional Coordinator, North-West, Amina Abdulmalik, stated this on Wednesday in Kano at a youth export development programme organised by the council in collaboration with the Youth Start-up Exporters Network of Nigeria.
‘For too long, the export space has been viewed as complex and for a select few. NEPC is changing that story,’ she said.
Abdulmalik said Nigeria’s future in non-oil export depended largely on the energy, creativity and innovation of its youths, stressing the need to deliberately involve them in the sector.
She said many of the participating youths were already involved in businesses, including fashion and agricultural commodities, but lacked the knowledge needed to add value to their products and sell them in international markets.
According to her, the programme was designed to equip young entrepreneurs with practical knowledge on product selection, packaging, certification and access to international markets.
Abdulmalik added that the initiative would help reduce youth unemployment while increasing the volume and value of the country’s exports.
Also speaking, Nayalo Abubakar Muhammad of the Youth Start-up Exporters Network of Nigeria said many young people still did not understand how the export business worked.
He said building the capacity of young entrepreneurs was therefore critical to enabling them to participate effectively in the global market.
Muhammad urged the participants to maintain professionalism and integrity in their export dealings, saying Nigerian products could only gain stronger acceptance globally when exporters built trust with international buyers.
In his goodwill message, the Kano Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KACCIMA) representative, Dr Tijjani Abdullahi Sarki, said Nigeria’s export potential remained constrained by its dependence on raw commodities.
He urged entrepreneurs to focus on processing and adding value to locally produced goods before taking them to the international market.
Sarki also identified access to finance, certification, market information, logistics and international buyers as critical factors needed to help Nigerian businesses compete globally.