Owing to the slump in the international prices of crude oil as well as decline in the volume of import shipment into Nigeria due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19), the revenue, which the Federal Government hopes to earn from the seaports is expected to drop by 75 percent by the end of 2020.
Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), made this prediction on Thursday during an interactive session on Webinar tagged, ‘Non-Oil Exports: Disrupting Nigeria’s Growth Cycle’, which was organised by BudgIT.
According to her, about 191 million metric tons of export cargo passed through the nation’s ports in 2019, 78 percent of which was crude oil cargo while the remaining 22 percent was non-oil export.
“Nigerian crude shipment is tied to exportation and it contributes the highest revenue of the ports. This underscores the importance of diversification of the economy through non-oil exports in order to reverse the trend,” Usman said.
Usman, who pointed out the need to encourage local investors and make domestic investment a priority, said that as a large country of consumers, Nigeria needs to increase local production in order to earn foreign exchange through export.
Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), made this prediction on Thursday during an interactive session on Webinar tagged, ‘Non-Oil Exports: Disrupting Nigeria’s Growth Cycle’, which was organised by BudgIT.
According to her, about 191 million metric tons of export cargo passed through the nation’s ports in 2019, 78 percent of which was crude oil cargo while the remaining 22 percent was non-oil export.
“Nigerian crude shipment is tied to exportation and it contributes the highest revenue of the ports. This underscores the importance of diversification of the economy through non-oil exports in order to reverse the trend,” Usman said.
Usman, who pointed out the need to encourage local investors and make domestic investment a priority, said that as a large country of consumers, Nigeria needs to increase local production in order to earn foreign exchange through export.