Nigeria falls below Afghanistan in exports ranking

Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo

Nigerian exports have fallen below those of Afghanistan in the list of vendor countries at the United Nations’ Global Marketplace.

This information was contained in a chart displayed during a recent national seminar on accessing international market through the United Nations Office for Project Services.

The online seminar was   organised by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council with the aim of repositioning Nigeria’s exports for acceptance in the international market.

A chart displayed by the UN officials from Copenhagen and Denmark during the Skype presentation showed that Afghanistan occupied the third position on the list of countries that supply goods to the UNGM while Nigeria fell below the 10th position.

According to the UN portal, the UNGM came out of one of the resolutions of the UN to create a central place where UN agencies that procure can go to buy things and where vendors that sell can also go.

The market acts as a single window through which potential suppliers may register with the UN organisations using the UNGM as their vendor database. These organisations account for over 99 per cent of the total UN procurement spent.

The UN and its many affiliated agencies represent an international market of over $15bn annually for suppliers of virtually all types of goods and services.

The NEPC said organisations of the UN system were making great efforts on a daily basis to identify new sources of supply, particularly from developing and underutilised donor countries in order to create an expanded and more equitable geographical distribution of procurement.

Speaking on the sidelines of the seminar, the Head of Office, UNOPS, Mr. Otuno Pius, explained that in order to improve its position on the list, Nigeria needed to be more competitive.

He said, “For you to compete in the UNGM, you should understand that there are others and the UN is working with taxpayers’ funds.

“If Nigeria has to compete, then the issue of standards has to rise up.   We must move beyond what we are doing.”

The Chief Executive Officer of NEPC, Mr. Segun Awolowo, said in his keynote address that the seminar was part of the council’s efforts at properly educating and building the capacities of Nigerian exporters and prospective exporters on a continuous basis.

He said, “You will agree with me that if appreciable achievement is to be recorded at promoting non-oil exports as the key driver of the Nigerian economy, consistent efforts must be made to develop and regularly enhance the capacity of Nigerian exporters to enable them to access the international market.

“This is why the NEPC has organised this national seminar to educate Nigerian exporting community on how to access the multibillion-dollar market of the UN and affiliates.”

During the online seminar, the project analyst at UNGM, Susan Randloff, took time out to address frequently asked questions about the global export market and provided information on how to export successfully.

Awolowo noted that the UN market should be employed by Nigerian exporters adding that it provided an avenue to introduce Nigeria’s goods and services to other countries and regions.

“Nigeria has tremendous potential to become key suppliers and providers to the UN agencies if efforts are geared towards meeting standards and complying with international best practices in our production and processing methods.”