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Enelamah faults TI’s rating

By Anthony Otaru, Abuja
01 March 2018   |   3:12 am
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, has said that the present administration will not be deterred by the low rating of Nigeria’s fight against corruption index in 2017, announced recently by Transparency International, given  government’s determination to win the war.

Minister of trade and investment, Mr Okechukwu Enelamah PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, has said that the present administration will not be deterred by the low rating of Nigeria’s fight against corruption index in 2017, announced recently by Transparency International, given  government’s determination to win the war.He also urged Nigerians to learn how to keep faith in the country because the nation will do well.

Global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), ranked Nigeria low in its 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released on last Wednesday, which placed the country in 148th position out of 180, a situation that has drawn various comments from government officials.
Enelamah said Transparency International is lagging in its indication, but that “We have to believe, act on it, and Transparency International will follow but we must take a lead.”

The Minister stated this Tuesday at the launching of the Nigerian Annual Trade Policy Report (NATPOR), the first edition put together by the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN), in Abuja.

NAPTOR identifies the priorities in Nigeria’s trade policy, and the use of trade policy as an instrument for structural transformation for diversification, modernisation, construction of regional and global value chains, welfare enhancement, job creation. 

The document, which was presented to the public by the Minister, is expected to be published annually.He identified statistics as one of the main highlights of the report, which could be used to monitor, assess, and re-negotiate Nigeria’s trading relationship with counterparts.

According to Enelamah, NAPTOR statistics indicates that trade activities (import and export) employed over 14 per cent  of the Nigerian workforce, the equivalent of 10.8 million people, adding that it also accounts for 18 per cent of GDP, second only to agriculture (which accounts for 29.1 per cent).

Despite the high job creation, he however said the overall value of Nigerian trade between 2014 and 2015 decreased by approximately N7.4billion (from about N23.7billion in 2014, to N16.3billion in 2015).

He said: “In terms of percentage, this is a decrease of about 18.5 per cent in trade value between 2014 and 2015. The decrease in 2015 reflected the recession in economic activities due to the sharp decline in oil receipts. There was a slight increase in 2016, stronger and more positive performance is expected with Q4 figure in 2017.” Also speaking, the Director-General, Nigerian Office of Trade and Investment Negotiation , Ambassador Chiedu Osakwe, said NAPTOR also showed that trade statistics for the first three quarters (Q1-Q3) of 2017, both in export and import, South Africa remained Nigeria’s major trading partner in Africa.

He noted that within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Côte d’Ivoire assumed the top position in terms of Nigeria’s imports from ECOWAS, while Togo led in terms of exports to ECOWAS, during the nine-month period.

Beyond Africa, Osakwe disclosed that Europe was Nigeria’s major regional trading partner (both in Export and Import) from Q1-Q3 2017, followed by Asia. Globally, India, and the United States were Nigeria’s two top major trading partners in export during the review period, while China, and Belgium were the two top import partners. 

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