Lagos, June 27, 2023: The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has advocated the need for the country to articulate a definite roadmap to diversify the economy toward non-traditional tradable goods and services.
The association’s Director-General, Mr Adewale Oyerinde, made the call at a news conference on Monday in Lagos.
The conference was held in preparation of the association’s 2nd Annual Employers’ Summit, scheduled to hold in Abuja between July 10 and July 11.
Oyerinde said such roadmap would not only guarantee long term economic stability, but would also ensure sustained job creation and Foreign Exchange generation.
“Furthermore, aggressively transiting into non-oil export and exportable service activities will allow Nigeria to take advantage of the rising income elasticity of demand that derives from growing income in the world economy,” Oyerinde said.
The NECA boss, who quoted the National Bureau of Statistics, said that Nigeria was ranked 52nd in global export in 2018 with 0.25 per cent share of world export.
He said, according to NBS, export trade of Nigeria was recorded at N26.8 trillion in 2022, while import trade was N25.7 trillion with a trade balance of N1.21 trillion for the same year.
“Non- oil sector stood at N2.57 trillion in 2022 with a growth rate of growth 19.6 per cent for the whole year; share of oil export to total export was recorded at 76.74 per cent in 2022
“The share of non-oil to total export stood at 9.54 per cent in 2022; contribution of oil sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 5.67 per cent in 2022, and non-oil sector contribution to GDP is 94.33 per cent the same year.
“With these realities, it is obvious that we need trade and non-oil exports not only to drive the economy but also to shore up FOREX to augment the current shortage.
“In fact, our options are limited; we must refocus on non-oil exports to change our national economic narratives,” Oyerinde said.
