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Stakeholders unveil cooperative to boost non-oil export financing

By Maria Diamond
17 July 2018   |   3:55 am
The Non-oil Export Community of Practice (NOCOP) has unveiled a funding scheme through the establishment of a cooperative society as part of measures to drive non-oil export financing among its members.

The Non-oil Export Community of Practice (NOCOP) has unveiled a funding scheme through the establishment of a cooperative society as part of measures to drive non-oil export financing among its members.

According to Titi Ojo, Exporters Voices Lead, at a 2-day event titled ‘Non-Oil Exporters Dialogue’, recently in Lagos, said there is need to create a non-obstructive workable export access that makes it possible for Nigerian products to be globally grounded.

“Funding is usually a big challenge for traders who want to export their products abroad; so the idea is to shut down all barriers limiting access to finance, before we proceed to accessing a workable approach to improving international trading” she said.

Also, Elizabeth Nwankwo, an exporter involved in agro-processing said, in global trade, quality is of utmost importance and when given purchase order there must be enough supply.
   
She stated that Nigeria does not have the facility to ensure produce quality, so local produce like beans are taken abroad to test and brought back to the country, which causes increase in pricing because of the long processing.
   
She also noted that to ensure quality control of export produce, farmers should be engaged from the outset and follow up though the process.
   
“Your product will need specification right from the input at the farm to know the quality of goods you are producing” she said.
   
Also, Sand Mba-Kalu, Executive Director of African International Trade and Commerce Research (AITCR) said, Geographical Indication (GI) is basically about standardising food of local origin for the global market.

“GI makes local produce accessible to the international market through a standard product.
   
“Statistically, Nigeria is at the lowest level in GI, because over the years, we have not put into consideration the issues of copyright, whereas, other countries have protected the process of their local food produce.
   
“There should be research funding to ensure that our food process is maintained by the global market; a lot of organisations, even government does not understand the procedure” he said.
   
 

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