By Eugene Onyeji
First Bank Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier and leading financial services provider, says it will support the Federal Government’s effort to diversify the revenue base of the economy.
The bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Adesola Adeduntan, said this during the bank’s Non-Oil Webinar Series on Tuesday.
The webinar had in attendance the managing director and chief executive of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) but represented by Folorunsho Akintunde, Deputy Director, NEPC; founder and chief consultant of B. Adedipe Associates Limited (BAA Consult), Biodun Adedipe, amongst others as guest speakers.
The theme of the webinar was “Roadmap to Building Sustainable Non-Oil Export in Nigeria: Harnessing AfCFTA and Agro Commodities.”
Adeduntan noted that the bank would leverage its expertise to drive discussions that would enable existing exporters to expand their export businesses and also encourage new entrants into the non-oil export industry.
“The non-oil sector holds tremendous value and opportunities for the country to enhance job and wealth creation, foreign exchange earnings, and gross domestic product (GDP) growth,” Adeduntan said.
Read Also: First Bank Holds Non-Oil Export Webinar
He noted that the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) presents an opportunity for Nigeria to be deliberate and position itself appropriately to become Africa’s export hub.
He said,: “This can be achieved considering our population, resources, and economic size. At FirstBank, we have been at the front burner of driving economic growth and we will use our reach and connection to orchestrate growth in the non-oil sector.”
According to Adeduntan, to drive the goal, the bank had created an Export Desk to support the needs of exporters, including designing export products and solutions to cater for pre and post-export financing and services.
Also, Biodun Adedipe, Chief Consultant, B. Adedipe Associates Ltd., said that the country needs to change its orientation to an export-led growth or import substitution economy.
Adedipe noted that the world that Nigeria operated on pre-COVID-19 pandemic was fast disappearing, stressing the need to give more attention to the country’s non-oil export industry.
According to him, there is a need to build supporting infrastructure to aid export business, as deliberately done by China toward boosting economic growth.
He added that aggressive targets should be set and rigorous measures implemented.
“If Nigeria does not act, other countries will act on us,” he said.
Commenting, Ezra Yakusak, Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), said that the council in 2016 developed the zero oil plan as a strategy to shore up the foreign exchange in the non-oil sector.
Yakusak, represented by Folorunsho Akintunde, Deputy Director, NEPC, said that through the plan an export policy for 22 major products that could generate 30 billion dollars annually was evolved.
According to him, the council is preparing and positioning SMEs for AfCFTA through various training, programmes, and incentives.
He said that the NEPC was working closely with Afrexim Bank and ITC, to ensure that Nigeria was ready for AfCFTA, especially on the Export Trading Company.
Also, Comptroller Malanta Yusuf, Customs Area Controller, Apapa, advised exporters to familiarise themselves with items allowed to be exported and those on prohibited lists.
He also advised them on clear descriptions of goods and proper packaging to facilitate the acceptance of goods.
Also speaking, Eric Intong, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Anglophone West Africa, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), said the bank developed various products, programmes, and initiatives to boost intra-African trade.
Intong said that to support AfCFTA, the bank would spend 40 billion dollars in intra-Africa trade and investment in the next five years.
He added that this was twice the amount disbursed for the same purpose in the last two years.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) is the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 127 years.
With over 750 business locations and over 130,620 Banking Agents spread across 99% of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, FirstBank provides a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services to serve its over 30 million customers.
The Bank has an international presence through its subsidiaries, FBNBank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.
The Bank has been handy at promoting digital payment in the country and has issued over 10million cards, the first bank to achieve such a milestone in the country. FirstBank’s cashless transaction drive extends to having more than 10million people on its USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code and over 4.5 million people on FirstMobile platform.
Since its establishment in 1894, FirstBank has consistently built relationships with customers focusing on the fundamentals of good corporate governance, strong liquidity, optimised risk management and leadership.
Over the years, the Bank has led the financing of private investment in infrastructure development in the Nigerian economy by playing key roles in the Federal Government’s privatisation and commercialisation schemes.
With its global reach, FirstBank provides prospective investors wishing to explore the vast business opportunities that are available in Nigeria, an internationally competitive world-class brand and a credible financial partner.
FirstBank has been named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” six times in a row (2011 – 2016) by the globally renowned “The Banker Magazine” of the Financial Times Group; “Best Retail Bank in Nigeria” for seven consecutive years (2011 – 2017) by the Asian Banker International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards and “Best Bank in Nigeria” by Global Finance for 15 years.