Abia Wants To Export To US Under AGOA

Market News

Abia Wants To Export To US Under AGOA

Statistics has it that Abia State exports over one million pairs of shoes and all kinds of leather products to other parts of Africa on a weekly bases, although unofficially.

The State has 250 key entrepreneurs in finished leather and garment production and each employs about four people. Consequently, Abia has about a million people actively engaged in the fashion sub-sector of Nigeria's economy. To stop informal trade and boost the economy of Abia State, the Aba smart office of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the country's non-oil export promotion outfit, designed a programme aimed at stopping informal trade at the Aba finished leather cluster.

The data collection project of the NEPC, is geared towards capturing the size of the Aba finished leather industry, in terms of daily production, quantity of products sold, daily, the number exported and their countries of destination. Relicx Shoilban, director, NEPC Smart Office, Aba, explained that the Federal Government is interested in developing the Aba finished leather sector, especially as it is working towards diversifying the country's economy.

He observed that the advent of crude oil resulted in the neglect of real sector - agriculture and manufacturing, which according to him, was the main stay of Nigeria's economy, before the discovery of crude oil. The Council in conjunction with Fidelity Bank and the West Africa Trade and Investment Hub, Ghana, has initiated a programme to prepare Aba finished leather and garment makers to export their products to United States of America, officially, through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The State Government is also discussing with the Nigeria-America Chamber of Commerce (NACC) to also utilise the AGOA window to aid the export of Aba-made-leather and garment products to the US. AGOA builds on existing US trade programmes by expanding the (duty-free) benefits previously available only under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme. Duty-free access to the US market under the combined AGOA/GSP programme stands at approximately 7,000 product tariff lines, including the roughly 1,800 product tariff lines that are added to the GSP by the AGOA legislation.

Notably, these include items such as apparel and footwear, wine, certain motor vehicle components, a variety of agricultural products, chemicals, steel and others. However, Nigeria has not maximised the opportunities in the Act to export to the large American market, like Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and other African countries, Olusegun Awolowo, executive secretary and chief Executive officer of NEPC, observed that Aba has the potential to export under AGOA.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu said, "In Abia State, we have begun to take our production system seriously, first of all we are setting standards that in our own considered opinion should be higher than the Nigerian average. We started by creating a Quality Assurance and Management Agency, just to make sure that goods and services that leave the shores of Abia State, are not only good enough for Nigeria and Africa, but should also meet world standards. "

He explained that the quality control agency is collaborating with SON, NAFDAC and other certifying agencies around Nigeria and beyond, to make sure that they set processes and procedures that are capable of delivering goods that are best in its class and range all over the world. Beyond that, he revealed also that the State Government is urging locals to demand locally produced goods. "The more we demand our goods, the more we can backward integrate and let those who are primary producers do better in terms of quality that they deliver."

To further boost trade in Abia, the Governor announced plans to establish a free trade zone in the State. Already the State has acquired 9000 hectares of land for the project, which is geared towards promoting Made-in-Aba and Nigeria goods.