WEFA: Nigeria, US partner on boosting Nigerian products’ exportation to American market

ABUJA (Industry, Trade and Investment Ministry Report) –  The Nigerian Government has said that it is partnering with the United States Government to boost the export of Nigerian products to the United States of America, under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
 
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga said this during the 2014 World Economic Forum on Africa, Small and Medium Enterprises Summit held in Abuja.  
 
Olusegun Aganga also said that the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is working on a new AGOA strategy that would help to boost the export of Nigerian products to the United States’ market.
 
“AGOA is a programme by the government of the United States which allows some Africa countries to export their products to the United States duty free. The AGOA programme covers about 6,000 products,” he said.
 
“During the Extra-Ordinary Session of the African Union Trade Ministers two weeks ago, it was discussed that Africa should push for the extension of AGOA to further fifteen years, since most African countries, including Nigeria have not fully taken advantage of AGOA and maximized the benefits of exporting to the United States’ market under the AGOA initiative.”
 
The Minister added that in order to address the challenges militating against Nigeria’s quest to take full advantage of the AGOA initiative, the Government is working on a new AGOA strategy that will enable increase in Nigeria’s volume of export to the United States.
 
According to him, discussions are on-going with the United States Government on ways of partnering with them for full benefits from the AGOA initiative. He also expressed belief that Nigeria can do far more than it is currently doing under AGOA. Adding, although Nigeria exports some agricultural products to the United States under AGOA, some of its products do not meet the required standards for export into the United States market. He explained that the country need s to do more in terms of value addition, so that it can fully optimize the benefits which AGOA offers.
 
As part of efforts to enhance SME’s access to cheap capital, Aganga said that the government is working on a number of initiatives to develop and deepen the Private Equity and Venture Capital sector across the country.
 
“We are working on a number of initiatives that will enhance the financing of the SMEs value – chain by developing innovative ways of attracting finance. What the government is doing in this regard is to work with the private sector to develop and deepen the Private Equity and Venture Capital sector to enable SMES have access to cheap funds,” the Minister noted.
  
Aganga intensified that with over 17million SMEs located across Nigeria; the country stands a better chance of creating more jobs for Nigerians if the sector is well developed.
He inferred that the SME sector is one area that Government wants to grow as much as possible as Nigerians are natural entrepreneurs. He further observed that Nigerians know how to work hard and to make money; indicating that the return on investment in the country is quite high because there are so many opportunities yet to be fully explored.
 
“For new businesses that are coming on board, it is always difficult to access money. We have different sources of funding. For instance – for debt capital, you have to go to the bank to borrow money; while equity capital comes from the entrepreneurs or from other sources. We want to create venture capital because we don’t have enough here,” the Minister iterated. 
 
“Also, we want to work with the Stock Exchange to make sure that SMEs can raise money from the second tier market and then get private equity players who can come in, build skills and help with the businesses.”
 
The Minister announced that the country is presently assessing areas where it can engage clusters for SMEs, to make it easier for them to have shared facilities to boost their productivity.