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Happy Tuesday and Welcome to Export Brief. A weekly newsletter with insightful developments and trends on non-oil export trade from Africa's largest economy and from the global stage. If you enjoy EB, share it with friends. 

• ⏲️: This edition is 1441 words, a 4-minute read.

IN BRIEF

⚡ Situational awareness: Nigeria's headline inflation for September 2022 was 20.77%, from 20.52% in August 2022, a 1.36% increase month-on-month, according to new data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

• IMF slashes Nigeria's GDP projection for 2023 to 3.0% and Sub-Sahara Africa to 3.7% in the new IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO).

• Govt, manufacturers explore sustainable non-oil export incentives

• Nigeria exports gemstones worth $3bn annually - FG

• Lagos: Badagry Deep Sea Port Gets Concession Approval

EXPORT TRADE 

⛴️1 big brief: Govt, manufacturers explore sustainable non-oil export incentives

In a way to improve earnings from non-oil export, the Nigerian government and local manufacturers are exploring sustainable incentives to encourage non-oil exporters for improved productivity and export.

• Nigeria's government assures manufacturers and exporters of the government’s commitment to making foreign exchange available for businesses. 

Why it matters: In addition to Export Expansion Grant (EEG), the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) also administers the Export Development Fund. As you know, this incentive aims to prepare, facilitate and support new exporters in their efforts to penetrate global markets. It provides training, financial and logistics support. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has also established a N500 billion non-oil export stimulation facility as one of its intervention programs to help manufacturers expand their scale of production.

The advantage: The face of Africa is changing; especially in light of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), one of the most important and strategic international economic agreements ever enacted. As the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria's contribution to the AfCFTA is pivotal to its success.

💬What they're saying: “We believe that with the steps that have been taken lately with the result and with the results that are being achieved, I do not doubt that within the next few months foreign exchange supply would increase and will improve and there will be more money to go around.” Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment. 

• “I am hopeful that this AGM will light up the government’s interest to further ensure that non-oil incentives in Nigeria are all up and active for the benefit of the Nation’s economy,” - Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, Director General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). 

The bottom line: The current economic realities in Nigeria today calls for immediate policy redirection, especially the heightened exchange rate, high energy cost, and cost of borrowing that has further impaired the progress and prosperity of the manufacturing sector.

TRADE ROUNDUP

TRADE | Nigeria exports gemstones worth $3bn annually - FG

• Nigerian economy does not benefit financially from gemstone trade and value addition. The current contribution of the solid minerals sector to the country’s overall GDP is less than 1% and reports in 2019 revealed that gemstones worth USD3billion are exported annually from Nigeria, mostly unofficially with low revenue returns.

EXPORT | Odds against harvesting $250b worth of agro-export produce

• The fortunes of air cargo export in Nigeria have dipped to an all-time low. On the one hand, the misfortune is the difficulty in funneling agro-produce to nearby airports for airlift to the global market.

UPCOMING TRAINING

EXPORT PROMOTION

🗒️ Lagos: Badagry Deep Sea Port Gets Concession Approval

The Deep Sea Port is part of a FTZ area seated on approximately 1,104 hectares of land, the FTZ comprises the Port Zone, Logistics Zone, Industrial Zone and a Power Hub. The port upon completion will generate over $53bn within the concession period.

Why it matters: The port will create an additional 250,000 jobs and will provide training and development opportunities, also increasing government revenue, improving the regional and global position of Nigeria’s maritime sector and reducing transportation costs.

Be smart: Recently, Lagos also got the federal government's approval for the construction of the second international airport. The new airport is to be located in Lekki, near the Lekki Deep Sea Port in the south-eastern part of the state. This would ease journey time and decongest the main port at Apapa in the commercial capital.

In more details: The Badagry Deep Sea Port, a $2.5 billion port project with 2,470m quay length container terminal, 560m quay length break bulk terminal, 265m quay length wheat/grain terminal, 1,370m quay length RoRo terminal & 360m quay length OSB terminal is all to be designed with minimum 18m depth, according to details released by Lagos government.

• Badagry is situated on the south-west coast of Lagos Nigeria, bordered by the Gulf of Guinea to the south.

The stakes: The port project is to be implemented under a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) concession structure, as such the port will be operated by the private concession for 45 years after which it will revert to the government.

IEOM

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DATA WATCH 

Global economic activity is experiencing a broad-based and sharper-than-expected slowdown, with inflation higher than seen in several decades.

• The cost-of-living crisis, tightening financial conditions in most regions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic all weigh heavily on the outlook.

• Global growth is forecast to slow from 6.0 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and 2.7 percent in 2023. This is the weakest growth profile since 2001 except for the global financial crisis and the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Global inflation is forecast to rise from 4.7 percent in 2021 to 8.8 percent in 2022 but to decline to 6.5 percent in 2023 and to 4.1 percent by 2024.

• Monetary policy should stay the course to restore price stability, and fiscal policy should aim to alleviate the cost-of-living pressures while maintaining a sufficiently tight stance aligned with monetary policy. 

 TWEET OF THE WEEK

🐦 READ WTO, IFC launch joint publication on trade finance in West Africa

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

AFRICA'S GLOBAL STARS: Pic. 1: Director-General of World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Managing Director of International Finance Corporation (IFC), Makhtar Diop at the launch of Trade and Finance in West Africa report in Washington DC recently.

Pic. 2: DG-WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Adewale "Wally" Adeyemo, US Deputy Secretary of Treasury at the margins of 2022 World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC.  Photo Credit: NOIweala/Twitter