Nigeria’s Economy will not Crumble if Crude Oil Disappears Today — Yakusak

By Linda Ike

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) said the country”s economy will not crumble if crude oil which is the major source of Government’s revenue dries up today.

The Executive Director of NEPC, Dr. Ezra Yakusak stated this at the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) Stakeholders Conference in Abuja with the theme:: “The Role of the Non-Oil Sector Toward Economic Diversification, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Growth”.

Yakusak said non- oil sector has contributed immensely to the economic growth of the nation, stating that Nigeria will look stronger if petroleum products are no more in existence in the country.

He said, “I strongly believe if crude oil is taken away from us today, Nigeria will not crumble.

If crude oil disappears in Nigeria, we are going to come out stronger.We have so many products that we can leverage on.

“I need to tell you that Nigeria is so blessed with so many products that you will be amazed.

NEPC Boss disclosed that Nigeria exported a total of 214 products in 2022. valued at $4.8 billion , the highest ever achieved by the country.

“We just realised that people are not aware of the products we have.

“We informed the world that we exported 214 products in 2022 and people were surprised that we had such products and we exported that much”, he stated.

Yakusak also said that the council will soon launch a new programme “Export 774’’ to identify exportable products in the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.

He said that the programme was inspired by the huge success recorded in export of the nation’s products to foreign countries in 2022.

“NEPC management has agreed to inaugurate a programme called “Export 774’’.

“The Export 774 is targeted at identifying the products in all the 774 local governments of Nigeria.

“We identify them, we identify their potential and of course the specific places where they are cited.

“We will put them in a kind of compendium to compare two of those products before they are exported.

“Export 774 is one of the projects we are going to execute this year,’’ NEPC Boss said.

Yakusak also stressed on the need for improved packaging of Nigerian products to fully maximise potentials in the international markets.

He said that increasing the nation’s value to produces and proper packaging would guarantee acceptability in the world market.

He harped on the need for Nigeria to.export more products if the country wants non-oil sector to survive and encouraged Nigerians to invest more in non oil sectors as the nation has many products for exportation.