Driving Export-led Economic Diversification Agenda

For decades, Nigeria’s economic fortunes have been disproportionately tied to crude oil, leaving the country vulnerable to volatile global prices, production disruptions and external shocks. But as President Bola Tinubu’s administration pursues an economic reset under the Renewed Hope Agenda, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council is increasingly positioning non-oil exports as a practical pathway to a broader, more resilient economy, James Emejo writes.

If anything, the significance of NEPC ’s interventions goes beyond taking Nigerian products to foreign markets. From supporting women-led businesses and training thousands of prospective exporters to developing agricultural clusters, securing international certifications, opening markets and tackling export rejections, the council is building the infrastructure around the export economy.

Its emerging strategy is clear: diversify what Nigeria produces, increase what it sells to the world, create jobs along the value chain and bring more foreign exchange into the economy. That is the real economic story behind NEPC’s activities.

The country’s diversification challenge had never simply been about producing more agricultural commodities. The bigger challenge had been converting the country’s enormous productive capacity into internationally competitive goods and services that can earn sustainable foreign exchange – giving NEPC an important mandate in this regard.

Established in 1976 as the federal government’s apex institution for developing and promoting non-oil exports, the Council has a mandate that sits directly at the heart of the administration’s diversification ambitions.

Its responsibility spans export development, promotion of export-related industries, creation of appropriate incentives and implementation of government export policies and programmes.

In practical terms, this means moving Nigeria from a country that primarily exports raw materials to one that can increasingly produce, process, certify, package and market goods for international consumers.

That transition is already visible in the Council’s interventions across agriculture, manufacturing, MSMEs, women entrepreneurship, skills development and international market access.

To further deliver on the mandate, the presidency announced the appointment of Mrs. Nonye Ayeni as Executive Director/Chief Executive of NEPC in October 2023 in an effort to further reposition the non-oil export sector as a stronger pillar of economic growth.

Her appointment came at a critical juncture in the country’s economic transition, with the Tinubu administration seeking to move the country beyond its longstanding dependence on crude oil and unlock new sources of foreign exchange, jobs and growth.

Building an Export Pipeline

One of the strongest arguments for NEPC’s role in economic diversification is the breadth of its interventions. From 2023 to date, the Council has conducted 1,983 capacity-building programmes involving 215,156 participants across the country.

The scale is significant because successful exporting requires more than having a product.

Entrepreneurs need to understand documentation, standards, pricing, logistics, international payment systems, market intelligence, packaging and the regulatory requirements of destination markets. Under Ayeni, NEPC’s capacity-building programmes therefore address a critical weakness in Nigeria’s export ecosystem: the shortage of export-ready businesses.

The Council’s Export Mentorship Programme takes that intervention further by connecting prospective exporters with established practitioners.

The pilot began with five performing exporters serving as mentors and 20 prospective exporters as mentees, with 15 mentees completing the programme.

The underlying strategy is commercially important: rather than simply teaching exporters the theory of international trade, NEPC is attempting to transfer practical knowledge from existing exporters to new entrants. The objective is ultimately to enlarge the pool of Nigerian businesses capable of earning foreign exchange.

New Export Economy

Perhaps one of the clearest examples of how NEPC is aligning its work with a modern export economy is its role in the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund.

The $50 million initiative, launched by the World Trade Organisation and International Trade Centre, seeks to bridge financing and digital gaps confronting women-led businesses in developing economies.

NEPC’s selection as the only African Business Support Organisation under the initiative, out of 610 applications globally, is significant. More striking was Nigeria’s response.

The Council mobilised more than 68,000 applications from women-led businesses across the six geopolitical zones, making Nigeria the single largest contributor to the global application pool.

Under the first phase, 146 women-led MSMEs were selected for grant support.

The programme goes beyond grants. Beneficiaries receive digital and financial training, coaching, support for e-commerce stores, assistance with pricing and logistics, and access to international digital platforms.

That matters because the future of international trade is increasingly digital.

For Nigeria, enabling women-owned MSMEs to sell beyond their immediate geographical markets creates a new class of exporters without requiring them to begin with large physical establishments or traditional distribution networks.

Export Value Chain

NEPC’s sesame cluster project in Kebbi State illustrates another important dimension of the diversification agenda: connecting production directly to export markets.

The Council acquired more than 500 hectares in Tsamiya, Bagudo Local Government Area, for the pilot project and organised 152 farmers into cooperatives.

Rather than stopping at the distribution of agricultural inputs, the intervention combines quality seeds, tractors, organic farm inputs and market access.

The next stage is equally crucial.

NEPC has invited Starlink, one of Nigeria’s major agricultural commodity exporters, to off-take harvested sesame from the warehouse for onward export to Turkey, building on an agreement between the Council and sesame exporters in Turkey.

This is the kind of value-chain approach Nigeria needs.

Production without a market can create gluts. Markets without reliable production create supply gaps. Export competitiveness requires both.

The Kebbi project attempts to connect the farmer, the aggregator, the exporter and the international buyer in one chain.

Taking Nigerian Products Global

One of the less visible obstacles to Nigeria’s export ambitions is product certification.

A product may be abundant, competitively priced and in demand internationally but still fail to enter a premium market if it does not meet the required standards. NEPC’s Go Global Go Certification programme addresses this bottleneck.

The Council says it has facilitated international certifications covering FDA, HACCP and HALAL for more than 305 exporters, while another 567 exporters are currently undergoing certification.

The economic implication is substantial.

Certification is not merely a regulatory exercise. It can determine whether Nigerian products remain at the low end of international markets or gain access to higher-value segments where consumers are prepared to pay premium prices.

For processed foods, agricultural products and manufactured goods, the difference between being exportable and being globally competitive often lies in quality assurance, traceability, packaging and certification.

NEPC’s certification drive therefore supports the administration’s diversification agenda at the point where production becomes international commerce.

Fighting Export Rejections

Nigeria cannot sustainably increase exports if its products continue to be rejected at international borders.

This explains the importance of the STDF-845 project, a three-year initiative running from 2024 to 2027 and focused on reducing international border rejections of Nigerian sesame and cowpea.

The project targets two major areas: compliance with maximum residue levels for pesticides and prevention of Salmonella contamination.

NEPC is coordinating the intervention through an intra-governmental working group involving relevant sanitary and phytosanitary agencies, regulators, inspection agencies and sector associations.

Six technical task-force areas cover food-safety requirements, domestic residue standards, national monitoring, border measures, responses to rejection cases and optimisation of existing government support.

The approach is important because it tackles the problem before products arrive at foreign borders.

For an economy seeking more foreign exchange from agriculture, preventing export rejection is as important as finding buyers.

Taking Nigerian Businesses to the World

Market access remains one of the most powerful components of NEPC’s strategy.

Ayeni’s NEPC has increasingly used international trade fairs and business-to-business engagements to put Nigerian companies directly before international buyers.

The Saudi Arabia engagement in February and March 2025 produced a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s Halal Products Development Company and projected $500 million in export revenue from agreements involving Saudi distributors.

At the cosmetics Global Trade Fair in Amsterdam, Nigerian businesses showcased shea butter, essential oils, plant extracts and other natural ingredients.

At the fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Shanghai, Nigerian exporters generated export orders while showcasing the country’s resource base.

But perhaps the strongest demonstration of market-access strategy came at the 2025 Intra-African Trade Fair in Algiers.

NEPC, in collaboration with BoI, NEXIM and SMEDAN, supported 75 Nigerian SMEs to participate.

Nigeria won the Best Pavilion for Transacting Business award, while participating businesses negotiated prospective export orders estimated at $110 million covering agro-processed commodities, cosmetics, shea butter, solid minerals, arts and crafts, textiles and apparel.

The significance extends beyond the headline figure.

The strategy is effectively using trade diplomacy to connect Nigerian producers with continental demand under the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Opportunity Beyond Nigeria

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) presents Nigeria with one of its biggest opportunities to diversify its export destinations.

Rather than concentrating exclusively on distant markets, Nigerian businesses can exploit the enormous consumer market across Africa.

NEPC’s involvement in intra-African trade is therefore strategically important.

The Council is not simply promoting Nigerian products abroad; it is helping Nigerian businesses understand and participate in a market where geographical proximity, cultural familiarity and potentially lower logistics costs can provide competitive advantages.

The planned hosting of the 2027 edition of the Intra-African Trade Fair in Nigeria could further strengthen this positioning.

For the Tinubu administration, the opportunity is straightforward: Nigerian companies that become competitive across Africa can subsequently scale into Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other global markets.

Next Generation of Export Crops

Export diversification must also begin at the farm gate.

NEPC’s distribution of 4,633 hybrid seedlings across different parts of the country is aimed at expanding the productive base for future exports.

The intervention has covered oil palm in Kogi, cocoa in Akure and Bayelsa, groundnut in Gusau and coffee in Plateau State.

In Plateau alone, the Council distributed 1,100 coffee seedlings and 100 bags of organic fertiliser to 148 farmers from Chaha and Vom communities.

The intervention illustrates an important principle: export diversification is not an event; it is a pipeline. The products that will generate export earnings in the coming years have to be planted, cultivated, processed and developed today.

Creating Export Entrepreneurs

The Export Skills Acquisition Centre in Apapa, Lagos, represents the employment side of the export equation.

The facility is being repositioned to train more than 1,000 Nigerian youths and women annually in garment and bag production under a public-private partnership arrangement with Lelook Nigeria Limited.

The ambition is not simply to teach people vocational skills. The larger objective is to create producers capable of supplying Nigerian distributors and retailers and eventually African and global markets. That distinction is critical.

An export economy creates jobs not only at the point of final production but across agriculture, processing, packaging, transportation, warehousing, certification, logistics, marketing and finance. Every successful exporter can therefore become the anchor for a wider network of economic activity.

Informal Trade and Formal Economy

Another potentially transformative area of NEPC’s work is its effort to formalise informal cross-border trade. The Council identified 42 border markets and 44 loading points across major trade corridors through which significant volumes of Nigerian agricultural, mineral and manufactured products leave the country. The problem is that much of this commerce is not adequately captured in official trade statistics. That creates a double loss.

Nigeria loses visibility over the true scale of its exports while traders and businesses operating informally remain outside many of the financing, insurance, market intelligence and institutional support mechanisms available to formal exporters.

NEPC is working with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  to improve data collection and analysis on informal trade and has also engaged the Central Bank of Nigeria to recognise the CFA franc as an acceptable payment currency in the Non-oil Proceeds Form.

Formalising these flows could improve Nigeria’s understanding of its actual export capacity while helping bring more transactions into the formal financial system.

The Council’s Sustainable Opportunity for Active Retirement (SOAR) initiative provides another example of how export development is being linked to inclusive economic participation.

The programme seeks to train retired civil servants in opportunities across the export value chain, including commercial agriculture, processing, packaging, aggregation, export trading and export-support services. The concept is broader than post-retirement support.

It seeks to convert accumulated experience, networks and human capital into productive economic activity. In the context of an administration seeking to create jobs and wealth beyond government employment, that is an important shift in thinking.

Bigger Economic Picture

Taken together, these interventions reveal a deliberate attempt to build an export ecosystem rather than merely promote individual products.

At one end is the farmer receiving improved seedlings or participating in a commodity cluster.

At another is the MSME receiving export training, certification or digital support. Beyond that is the exporter meeting an international buyer at a trade fair.

And at the final stage is the product entering a foreign market, generating foreign exchange and creating demand for another round of domestic production.

That is the multiplier effect of export diversification.

It means the economic value of NEPC’s work should not be measured only by the number of trade fairs attended or training programmes conducted. Its deeper value lies in the export pipeline it is helping to construct.

Perhaps, the most compelling aspect of NEPC’s current strategy is its attempt to close the gaps between production, standards, finance, market access and export earnings. Nigeria has never suffered from a shortage of agricultural resources, entrepreneurial energy or a large domestic market. Its persistent challenge has been converting those advantages into globally competitive production. That is where the Council’s interventions increasingly fit into Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda.

Whether through 215,156 people reached through capacity-building programmes, more than 68,000 women-led businesses mobilised for WEIDE, 305 exporters supported with international certifications, 567 undergoing certification, 75 SMEs taken to the IATF, $110 million in prospective export orders, $500 million in projected Saudi-linked export opportunities, or the development of commodity clusters tied directly to international buyers, the emerging message is that Nigeria’s non-oil economy is being organised around a more commercially aggressive export strategy. The ultimate test, however, will be conversion.

Training must produce exporters. Exporters must produce shipments. Shipments must produce foreign exchange. Foreign exchange must support economic stability. And increased production must translate into jobs, higher incomes and stronger domestic value chains.

If those links continue to strengthen, NEPC’s role will extend far beyond the traditional description of an export promotion agency.

It will become one of the important institutional bridges between Nigeria’s production capacity and the global market—and a critical instrument in the Tinubu administration’s attempt to build an economy that earns not only from what lies beneath its soil, but increasingly from what Nigerians grow, manufacture, process, design and sell to the world.