By Israel Adamu,Jos
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, has urged exporters in Plateau State to embrace value addition to their products to attract higher prices and increase profits in the international market.
The North-Central Zonal Coordinator of NEPC, Mrs Juliet Omonke, gave the charge in an interview with Journalist on the sidelines of the council’s Gemstone Cutting and Polishing Training held on Tuesday in Jos.
Omonke said value addition was a major priority of the council, stressing that exporters in the agricultural, gemstone and manufacturing sectors must move beyond the export of raw materials and commodities.
“My call to exporters and potential exporters on the Plateau is that no matter the sector they are playing in, whether agricultural commodities, gemstone or the manufacturing sector, value addition, value addition, value addition.”
“It can never be overemphasised. When you add value to your product, you get a higher price.”
“We want to be known in the international market as people that export finished products, not raw materials or commodities.”
“We want to scale it up and move higher to the level of value addition. That is what the Nigerian Export Promotion Council canvasses and promotes,” she said.
Omonke said the council remained committed to training and sensitising exporters in the state as part of efforts to grow the non-oil export sector and reduce the country’s dependence on crude oil.
“We continue to encourage those in the export sector to export. It is only then that we can truly grow our economy.”
“The mono-economy is not doing anybody any good, and we are very happy at NEPC that the export basket, in terms of volume and value, has continued to increase,” she said.
Also speaking, the Director of Exploration and Gemological Services, Plateau State Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Mineral Development, Mr Jaryum Samuel, commended NEPC for organising the training, describing it as beneficial to the people of the state.
He urged exporters and prospective exporters to continually seek ways of adding value to their products, saying Plateau was richly endowed with mineral resources capable of generating wealth and creating employment opportunities.
“Such opportunities open our eyes to know that we are sitting on wealth, and we are going to make use of the potential we have in Plateau to gain from.
“This training will take our children out of the street, our widows and the rest that are there. It will equally train them on how to do it because it is not something that requires heavy equipment. It is something that within your own backyard you can do.
“We cannot continue to rely on oil. One day oil will deplete; where do we go to? Most of Plateau is endowed with all kinds of mineral resources.”
“The training being organised by NEPC is a great privilege for Plateau people because they are promoting what we have. It gives us a very good background of what we are expected to do. We are therefore grateful to NEPC,” he said.