Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama on Saturday, July 11 explained why Nigeria is being denied market access into a lot of countries.
The Minister who spoke at a meeting in Abuja with the Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Olusegun Awolowo, said the quality of products especially agricultural products, do not meet the export standards of many countries.
Onyeama said “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a comparative and unique advantage to be physically present in over 100 countries in the world. Now, this represents truly a unique opportunity to leverage that presence to export and trade our goods. There are a number of countries around the world not blessed with the natural resources that we have but yet, through trade, have transformed their societies and have become major economic powers. In engaging with a number of countries, we have seen that, especially in the agriculture sector, the phytosanitary aspect is very important. We are being denied market access into a lot of countries because of the quality of the products. And this is costing us huge resources. So I think that your agency (NEPC) also has a lot of work to do.”
The Minister further said the Federal Government will focus on strengthening economic diplomacy in ensuring Nigeria benefits from countries it has formal relationships with.