By Adesina Wahab

Vice President Kasim Shetimma has said the only way for the country to use its export to achieve economic recovery is for it to add value to the exported items.

The VP said this in Lagos on Tuesday as the Chairman of the 36th convocation lecture of Yaba College of Technology, YABATECH, Akoka, Lagos.

The VP, who was represented by the Special Adviser on Economic Matters in the Presidency, Dr Tope Fasua, said the country cannot gain much if all it exports have no value added to them.

Speaking in the same vein, Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who delivered the convocation lecture, noted that exporting raw materials without adding value, is detrimental to the economic well being of the nation.

“YABATECH has a formidable history as the pioneer tertiary institution in Nigeria and part of the dream of setting it up is to make Nigeria a technologically advanced nation for the country to compete favourably with others. This will be done when technical skills are inculcated in the students and we must also be on top of the game as technology changes rapidly.

” The world has moved greatly from the time of Industrial Revolution and some are saying we are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, some saying we are in the fifth , sixth and so on. The world has lost count. Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence and others have taken the world by storm.

“We cannot afford to lag behind as a nation and all the expertise necessary must be brought to bear on what we sell to the world, our export. We are shortchanging ourselves if we continue to send raw materials to the world, without adding value and import finished products at high cost. Value added export is what Nigeria needs now, ” he said.

The Vice President charged YABATECH to consistently remind itself of the reasons it was set up, saying the College and other higher institutions in the country do not lack talented persons, but must let their talents be used for the progress and prosperity of Nigeria.

Delivering the lecture titled “Development export alternatives for Nigeria’s economic recovery”, Governor Sanwo-Olu said changing the course of Nigeria from exporting raw materials to a nation that adds value to the exported goods can be done.

He cited the case of Benin Republic and Vietnam that have achieved some success by adding value to their export.

He explained that Benin Republic had changed the course of her history by adding value to Cotton she produces in large quantity, as it has now become a hub of textile materials.

“What are these non-oil, non-gas export alternatives that we should be looking at? At the top of that list is agriculture, which, interestingly, was our export mainstay prior to the oil boom. A country that is the world’s biggest producer of cassava and yam should be earning hundreds of millions of dollars annually from exporting it, if not billions of dollars.

“Now, a caveat is necessary here. When I speak about agricultural exports, I do not mean raw materials and unprocessed goods. If there is one lesson we have learnt over many decades, it is that there is no value or pride in exporting raw materials to the world.

The countries that prosper from natural resources are the ones that process and add value to it before exporting it. And often times these are not even the countries in which those natural resources are to be found most abundantly.

“The world’s largest reserves of cobalt are to be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo – that country alone accounts for almost half of all known reserves of cobalt in the world, and more than two-thirds of current production. But who benefits from the maximum value from cobalt? It isn’t the DRC – instead it is the world’s developed countries who transform the cobalt into a component of the lithium-ion batteries that power all our domestic electronics as well as electric vehicles. It is the countries that innovate and produce the Teslas of the world that reap the benefits of cobalt, not countries that merely mine and export it unprocessed. A similar story applies to cocoa – the countries that grow it derive only a fraction of the value earned by the countries that process it. The world belongs to processors, not primary producers,” the governor said.

He, however, expressed optimism that the country is heading in the right direction going by the series of policies and actions taken by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration at the federal level.

“In fact, for those paying close attention, it is already happening in Nigeria. We are already seeing the signs of a significant shift in the nature and structure of our exports. It is early days yet, but we should see this as motivation to double down and fast-track the conditions for an export revolution.

“A few months ago, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) published very insightful data about Nigeria’s non-oil exports in the first half of 2024. Let’s take a look at the highlights.

“Between January and June 2024, Nigeria earned a total of $2.7 billion US dollars from non-oil exports. For comparison, this figure is less than what Vietnam earns a month from exporting just mobile phones and their components. Which shows us just how far we need to go to put ourselves on the global exports map.

“Of that 2.7 billion dollars total for H1 2024, earned from 3.8 million metric tonnes of goods, cocoa beans accounted for 23.18 percent, while urea followed with 13.78 percent, and sesame seeds with 11.04 percent. Which means these three products accounted for almost of the total value of our non-oil exports in the period under review.

“On that list of our main oil exports, urea is the one item that is the product of industrial processing and value addition. Thanks to the efforts of companies like Indorama-Eleme Fertilizer and Chemical Limited, Notore Chemical Industries Limited, and the Dangote Petrochemical and Fertilizer Plant, the largest in Africa, Nigeria has become a net exporter of processed urea fertilizer, with our exports going to various countries around the world,” he stated.

 On his advice to the graduating students, Sanwo-Olu said they should not lose hope, but to be part of those changing the narrative about Nigeria and Africa as a whole through innovations that would take the world be storm.

He added that with the youthful age of most Africans and the ageing populations in many advanced nations, African youths should be ready to hit the global stage with a bang.

The Chairman of the Governing Council, Prof.Funso Afolabi, commended the management, staff and students of the College for maintaining its reputation as a leading institution of higher learning in Nigeria.

In his welcome address, the Rector, Dr Ibraheem Abdul, said the College has a proud legacy of contributing to Nigeria’s industrial and economic advancement.

He said after 77 years of being a citadel of learning, the College needs assistance to upgrade some facilities and provide new ones.

He specifically mentioned a female hostel that was gutted by fire some years ago and which has not been renovated due to paucity of funds.

Governor Sanwo-Olu later promised that the state government would assist in renovating the hostel.