The Federal Government has assured Nigerians of huge and immense benefits from the economic reforms being embarked upon by President Bola Tinubu administration.
Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion, Office of the Vice President, Dr Nurudeen Abubakar Zauro, gave the assurance at one-day webinar organised by the Nigeria Export Promotion Council NEPC, “NEPC Re-Energized Webinar Series 4.0: “The imperatives of logistics to a successful export: A practical perspective” aimed to equip exporters with a comprehensive understanding of export logistics fundamentals, navigate the intricate practices and procedures involved, enhance their ability to manage logistics operations for timely deliveries, and address potential risks and challenges with effective mitigation strategies.
Speaking exclusively with Tribune Online, the presidential aide said the government is not unaware of what Nigerians are currently passing through saying 2024 is a year of reforms while assuring that the benefits of the reforms will fully to come the bare in 2025 through various initiatives that have been put in place by the government in the outgoing year.
He said the economic crunch is a global affair but added that Nigerians will start seeing the gains of the reforms through implementation and the enabling environment that has been put in place by Tinubu’s government.
“What we are trying to say is that the year 2024 is a year of reforms and lot of economic reforms are happening in the country in order to ensure that a very good platform is set in place because the government’s role is to create an enabling environment.
“Policies, regulations and all that are being put in place and bear in mind that the hard economic climate is not only in Nigeria but of global dimension.
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“A lot has happened recently like the Covid-19, the Ukraine-Russian war, now we have Middle East issues, disruption in the supply chain, import and export and all that.
“That is why this discussion which centred on export is very important. We are talking in 2025 of implementations of some of these reforms that have already been lined out within the year 2024 are going to surface.
“The benefits of those reforms are going to be reflecting gradually to the point that the economy will be bouncing back.
“And I’m sure you’ve seen that in the stability of the naira. The dollar has started falling gradually. Even the fuel prices as we are talking is dropping too.
“We’ll get to a stability level where the whole decision making can now be mopped up. In 2025, we are going to be reaping the benefits of the reforms that have already taking place in 2024.
“Among the reforms that we have put in place is the ASO Accord and the Financial Inclusion. What is it about? Three things are in the ASO Accord; number one is Recognition. Recognising the importance of economic opportunities for all Nigerians so that every economically-active Nigerian will not be left behind.
“It is also to promote collaboration between the public and the private sectors and all other players so that we can all achieve together.
“What we are saying is that there has to be an ecosystem whereby there is a united front for us to get to where we are going.
“Going into January, a lot of implementations are already happening in different segments of the Nigerian economy.
“Here we are talking about export, logistics and other parameters. We have the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which Nigeria is leading and if it’s ready, Nigeria has to be ready because we’ve to be producing locally and ensure that local production takes advantage of AfCFTA so that we can export not within only Africa but globally,” Dr Abubakar Zauro told Tribune Online.
The Executive Director/CEO, Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mrs Nonye Ayeni, said the objectives of the webinar was to provide exporters with an in-depth understanding of the basics of export logistics by helping them to navigate the complexities of export logistics practices and procedures as well as equipping them with the knowledge needed to effectively manage their logistics operations and ensure that their products are delivered efficiently and on time.
It is also to highlight the potential risks and challenges they may encounter in the export logistics process and ways to mitigate such.
“If you listened to all the resource persons, we want to empower our expertise and the people on the value chain.
“We want to be able to prepare them to scale up for them to understand what it takes in terms of logistics to make their export journey seamless.
“We’ve also been able to let them know what are the rudiment, the opportunities, the challenges and how to mitigate the risk.
“Basically to make their export journey seamless and that is why we brought experts from various areas from the Customs, the Presidency and even from individuals who have had success stories to encourage everyone.
“This is a beautiful country full of opportunities. The take away for the participants is that they are now better equipped in terms of exporting especially to address the challenges of logistics,” the NEPC boss stated.
No fewer than 3,250 participants attended the event concurrently through all the social media platforms and physical participation.
