Zenith Bank Rallies Nigerians To Opportunities In Export Market

Zenith Bank on Tuesday issued a rallying cry to Nigerian stakeholders to take opportunity of the huge opportunities in export trade in order to check the negative impact that the inevitable collapse of oil income will usher.

Welcoming participants to the sixth Zenith Seminar on International Trade, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu with facts and figures also lamented the gap in intra-African trade and also, Nigeria’s huge dependence on oil revenue which he warned was an increasingly vanishing resource.

The sixth edition of the seminar was conducted virtually with distinguished panelists speaking from Abuja, Congo and Lagos, to registered participants from across the world. Among the speakers were Governor Godwin Emefiele of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Wamkele Mene, the secretary-general of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, AfCFTA; Mr. Bennedict Oramah, president of the Africa Export-Import Bank.

Welcoming the participants to the webinar, Mr. Onyeagwu while noting the challenges on dependence on oil revenue and the increasing challenges from that stream observed that Nigeria was immensely blessed with resources that could enhance the potentials of the people in international trade.

He said Zenith also identified with Governor Emefiele’s interpretation of the development finance role of the bank in boosting exports as a way of also checking the twin devils of inflation and unemployment lurking at the polity.

He said:

“The world is progressively looking for cheaper alternative sources of power,” which he said had made it inevitable that dependence on oil revenue was no longer feasible for the country.”

“So we cannot just imagine our country without oil, but we must begin to live out the spirit and the details of Nigeria without oil.”

“We have historical evidence to attest to the fact that this country is richly endowed and the endowment is so uniquely done by the Almighty God so that what you cannot get in Cross River, you get it in the North,” the Zenith Bank CEO said of the complementary resources available in the nook and cranny of the nation.

Rallying participants to key into the federal administration’s initiatives in boosting export as has lately been referenced by the opportunities offered through, AfCFTA, he said:

“It is very imperative for us as a country to key into the Federal Government’s agenda of economic diversification with particular reference to non-oil exports.

“The commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Arrangement is a perspective that will open up the whole of Africa for Africa to be able to trade with each other.

“We see the commencement of the AfCFTA as a unique opportunity for different regions of Africa to go back to the basis and think of how to lift up our SMEs,” the Zenith Bank boss said.

Noting the dangers for the country without harnessing the non-oil sector in the face of progressive shift by the world from dependence on crude oil, he said:

“Imagine Nigeria without oil, you will see that our non-oil exports cannot sustain our economy. If you look at the proportion of non-oil exports to GDP, at 2% based on 2020 figures, it gives you the magnitude of the huge opportunity and it also shows the headroom that we have in the non-oil export to accommodate as many as we can. It is one open field. It shows that this is one opportunity waiting to be explored.”

Given Zenith Bank’s increasing foray into the continent, he, however, lamented the failure of Nigerians, nay Africans to trade within the continent noting that about 84.5% of trade value was directed outside the continent.

“In terms of intra-regional trade, Africans are trading at the rate of 15.5% when compared with total trade which means that 84.5% of the trade is going to outside Africa. That means Africans are not trading among themselves, Africans are transferring prosperity elsewhere. If we don’t speak for Africa, if we don’t change the narrative for Africa who will change it?

“North America with a population of 497 million, their intra-regional trade is 30%, Asia with 4.7 billion human beings, their intra-regional trade is 60%. Europe is 68%.

“It is important for us as Africans to begin to see that the money should not be going to the wrong places, the money should circulate within Africa. If the money keeps circulating within Africa what we will have will be shared prosperity, what we will have will be massive empowerment in terms of economic activities,” he said.

Dismissing critics of the CBN’s role in promoting exports, he said:
“Some analysts will tell you, looking at export initiatives that it is not within the core duties of the CBN, but the current CBN governor has found accommodation for this very laudable idea within its development finance initiative of CBN  and it is important that we all rally around him (Governor Emefiele) in preaching this economic prosperity that awaits every Nigerian.”

Noting the twin evils of unemployment and inflation as presently being tackled by the CBN, he said:
“We cannot deal with these unless we go back to harness these natural endowments and resources that God has blessed us as a nation and we need to harness them,” he said as he lauded the CBN’s facilitator role which saw exports grow from less than 4% of total exports in 2017 to 13% in 2019 before the COVID-19 headwinds in 2020.”

Observing Zenith’s contribution, he said that the bank following the 2020 Zero to Hero conference on international trade has been able to nurture 100 new exporters.

He also spoke of how the bank has latched into credit schemes offered by the CBN directed towards exports.

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