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In an effort to pursue the diversification agenda being driven by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the Nigerian government says it is set to intensify efforts to diversify the country’s economic base to non oil ventures by collaborating with international agencies to boost the economy from cashew exports. This was revealed by the Executive Director of NEPC, Olusegun Awolowo earlier this week. He further stated that Nigeria successfully exported cashew nuts worth $106 million to Vietnam in 2014 and that the country is targeting at least $2 billion within the next two years as proceeds from the export of the commodity. Speaking on concerns about the quality of cashew being exported, Awolowo noted that the country has put in place a four-year plan to improve cashew exportation adding that the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has established two international standard laboratories to test goods and products for export. “We are working on a four-year development plan. We can make $2 billion in the next two years. We will scale-up the production of cashew nuts and export its raw kernels and also do processing. We have 13 national strategic export products that will replace crude oil in terms of their revenue generation. The future of Nigeria is bright,” he added. He was optimistic that the fall in crude oil prices would not mean the end for the Nigerian economy and the country would return to its lost glory. “The fall of the oil prices did not surprise us, but we have been working on the diversification of the economy under the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Master Plan. The idea is to fully diversify Nigerian economy by 2020,” he said. The Chairman of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria, Babalola Faseru stated that the Nigerian market would organise training courses for farmers and develop production chains to ensure an improvement in raw cashew quality. He added that the country would also supply advanced equipment and technology to enhance cashew quality. A report by the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas), in 2014 said “Throughout the year, Vietnamese enterprises imported 769,000 tonnes, a 59 per cent increase from 2013. As many as 13.4 per cent of the total imports were sourced from Nigeria”.  
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This article was first published on 5th March 2015

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