By Harrison Edeh, Abuja
ABUJA – The Nigerian government, the European Union and the United Nation’s International Development Organisation (UNIDO) are currently working out modalities to advance standardisation in Nigeria’s non-oil export through National Quality Infrastructure Project for Nigeria, which is expected to address the issues of rejection of Nigeria’s non-oil exports.
Amidst dwindling oil resources, the Federal Government is seeking avenues to expand Nigeria’s non-oil export which currently stands at $2.7 billion, and the Muhammadu Buhari administration has pledged to drive the country’s economy beyond oil while exploring opportunities from other sectors such as the agriculture, mines and agriculture.
Joseph Odumodu, the head of Secretariat for the National Quality Infrastructure Project for Nigeria, during a stakeholders’ dialogue session in Abuja on Tuesday, said: “So far in our efforts, market institutions have been created. Trainings for capacity has been done. In Nigeria,we now have a Nigeria accreditation facility,and which is assisting us a lot. We have Proficiency testing facilitated up to 200 trained in the public sector.
As regards metrology which is a key factor for exports to industrialised world, government has designated a National Metrology Institution for that and construction is on.
“The project is training and building capacity of institutions involved in standardisation and enforcement is on course. The Private sector has also shown determination to work with the certification agencies these are the steps taken so far.
We are making a case for four items that we have agreed on-that is melon, brown beans, shear butter and leather. We would really make a case for quality with them in improving quality and allowing market access.
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On his part, Juan Casla, head, Section for Trade and Economic Governance at the EU, said: “We will assist Nigeria to always improve on quality to meet global competitiveness. The EU is an important market for Nigeria. We are doing this to collaborate and evaluate and forge ahead on a common ground. With the quality infrastructure master plan, we will be able to ensure NIgeria doesn’t have rejects because of its huge market to Europe.”
“We are involving all stakeholders in dialogue. NAFDAC,SON the Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment. So far, we are satisfied with the level of progress made,and we would keep building on that.”
Dr. Chima Ezedinma, UNIDO regional officer, said: “We want to ensure that the accreditation body, the metrological institute meets the required standards. We need to keep working with the Nigerian government to improve the livelihood of the people that are on this. The non-oil export is the way to go for Nigeria and we would keep working with relevant government agencies to ensure we improve on what we do at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Odumodu has explained further on the determination of the Secretariat to engage the Executive and the National Assembly for them to have a deeper understanding of the framework,and to further design a Legal framework that would assist the project to excel.
