NEPC trains 60 Enugu SMEs on export

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) on Wednesday trained over 60 Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Enugu on how to export their products.

Declaring open the training, the Assistant Director, Policy and Strategy Department of NEPC, Abuja, Mr Aliyu Sadiq, said that SMEs are the live wire of any society, hence the need for the training.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop, entitled ‘Facilitating Strategic Export Market Access Programme (EMAP)’, is in collaboration with trade support institutions.Sadiq said the objective is to prepare and train SMEs in Enugu on how to export their products successfully on international markets.

“We are training them on the criteria and certification needed to meet international standards and we are targeting 60 exporters.“I am happy that we have trained more than 60 participants today and I expect that more than 25 of them will begin to think of export now,” Sadiq said.

Sadiq noted that the council supports SMEs to mitigate their suffering during the lockdown.“The Export Development Fund which the Federal Government approved is for us to support SMEs who operated under difficult conditions during the COVID-19.“It is not a loan but a grant to help them bounce back,” he said.The Director, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme, Patrick Njom, said that most of the produce in the country are not exported.

Njom attributed this to substandard nature of the products, adding that the training would help them to export most of these products and services to Europe and America.

He said that Enugu State is one of the states in the country engaged in agricultural programme.“This is why Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi paid counterpart fund and in terms of crop processing zone in Nigeria, Enugu state is number one.

“And it is one of the states conducive for business and investment, so investors can come and process their agricultural products in that value chain to be exported to foreign countries,” he said.He commended NEPC for organising the event, saying it would benefit most of the SMEs in the state to put their goods to the global market.A participant, Mr Chukwunonye Okereke, Manager, Kestrel Topaz Limited, said that having access and contact of buyers across the globe was the major bane of the exporters in the country.According to him, market access become imperative for successful exporter.

“If you get one, the sky is your limit and you can build the business from there. The use of business website is also good but it is very expensive.“Most exporters may not have the capacity to go through the website due to the money involved,” he said.Okereke, who exports bitter cola and ginger, added that insecurity in the country is posing a great problem for farmers with the results that exporters are afraid to go into the bushes to buy their products.“We live in perpetual fear because there is no ATM and we enter the bush with huge sums of cash to buy our products.

“We might even get robbed, kidnapped or killed,” Okereke lamented.He stated that export business is anchored on integrity and honesty. (NAN)