AfCFTA: Osinbajo Advises Exporters To Prioritise Export As Nigeria Moves Away From Oil

Patience Abbah

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has advised exporters to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

He said prioritizing exports is necessary as the world is quickly moving away from fossil fuel.

The VP said this in a statement on Friday which was signed by Laola Akande the VP’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity.

Osinbajo said this while he received delegates from major agro-exporters in the country led by the Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Segun Awolowo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

While explaining the National Development Plan which was approved by the Federal Executive Council, Osinbajo said, “One of the major components of that plan is that we are trying to move away as much as possible from our dependence on oil and gas proceeds as our major sources of foreign exchange. You have seen a trend towards that in revenue figures”.

“We believe attention needs to be paid to exports generally. Of all the various plans of government that we have, one of the critical things for us now is that we all know that we are moving away very quickly from oil”

“Anything we can do, there shouldn’t be a cause for any kind of hindrance to agro-export.”