By  Franklin Alli
The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, has tasked the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) to establish an Export Training Institute for the economy like the British Export Institute, Israeli Export Institute and MATRADE Malaysia, to mention a few .

He stated this during a capacity building programme, tagged ‘The Export Promotion Partnership Training course on“International Trade and Development’ at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to him, the Institute if established will facilitate capacity building through global best practices, stressing that capacity building was the veritable vehicle for growth and development in any organisation, sector or the aggregate economy.

He said that the Council should also tailor the courses to meet the unique challenges facing Nigerian exporters in the global market place even as the initiative ultimately culminates into a fully fledged Export Institute in the nearest future.

The Minister called on the development partners and international donor agencies to key into the project, thereby consolidating their partnership with the Council and the nation at large.

In his address, Mr. David Adulugba the Executive Director/CEO, NEPC, described the training programme as a land mark event in the sense that it was the pilot package of the initiative and it was postured to constitute the foundation of a sustainable public private partnership with the private sector and the development partners.

He said that the partnership was expected to avail the opportunity to generate and deliver qualitative and contextually relevant and strategically tailored courses addressing the key challenges confronting the exporting community at a highly subsidized and consequently affordable rate.

He said that the customized course series would be delivered on a quarterly basis while the initiative was propelled to culminate into a full fledged Export development Institute of Nigeria.