BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

ABUJA-Nigeria’s non-export value rose from $0.2 billion in 2000 to $2.3 billion, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins Kuye, has said.

Senator Kuye, who made this known at the presentation of report of the Inter-ministerial Committee on the review of Export Expansion Grant, EEG, yesterday, also listed dishonesty and scheming of some export manufacturers in the country as some of the problems facing EEG’s implementation in Nigeria.

According to him, the bulk of Nigeria’s non-oil export consists of agro-allied products such as cocoa, leather, rubber, cotton-textiles, shrimps, sesame seeds and gum arabic.

He noted that to some extent, the country’s non-oil exports had been growing consistently at a double-digit rate in the last five years.

On the EEG, the minister said:  “Simple and sensible as the EEG policy may seem, it has faced implementation challenges, ranging from the corruptive and manipulative activities of a few export manufacturers to alleged institutional hindrances on the part of FGN implementation agencies.”

He said the main objective of the EEG was to compensate export manufacturers for manufacturing cost increases traceable to hashed environment thereby enhancing their products’ competitiveness in the export markets.