Nonye Ayeni, NEPC’s impressive 2024 and Q1 2025 performance – Toni Kan

The quote – “You can’t improve what you don’t measure” is often attributed to renowned business management consultant, Peter Drucker and goes to the heart of performance in business.

Measurement and evaluation are key management principles and they involve systematic assessment of performance to ensure accountability while identifying areas for improvement, with the overarching aim of achieving organizational goals. 

This was at the core of the media briefing by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) on Friday January 31,2025. At the briefing, Nonye Ayeni, the ED/CEO of the Council shared a progress report on the performance of the non-oil export sector in 2024. As report cards go, it was an impressive result with total receipts of $5.456 billion in 2024 showing a 20.77% increase over the 2023 figure of $4.517bn. 

The result is testament to the council’s push not just for diversification in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s“Renewed Hope Agenda” but also evidence of the efficacy of the council’s policies and programmes like the “Go Global, Go for Certification” campaign,  which is focused on enhancing the quality of Made-in-Nigeria products and overall competitiveness in the global trade arena. 

Other initiatives that have contributed to the stellar result include “Export 35 Redefined and the #doubleyourexport initiative all geared towards increasing production capacity of farmers and processors.

To return to the scorecard for 2024, the council exported 7.291 million metric tonnes of exportable products comprised of agricultural commodities, semi-processed and manufactured products to solid minerals compared to 6.685 million metric tonnes recorded in 2023.

Of the 246 products in their export basket for 2024, the ED/CEO listed the Top 10 products as Cocoa Beans, Urea/Fertilizer, Sesame Seed, Cashew Nuts/Kernels, Aluminum Ingots, Cocoa Butter, Copper Ingots, Soya Beans/Meal, Gold Dore and Hibiscus Flower indicating a move towards semi-processed and manufactured products.

Thanks to what Nonye Ayeni attributed to “increased global demand, improved production processes, enhanced market access to key importing countries, and targeted trade policies promoting value-added products” Cocoa Butter, experienced a notable surge in 2024, propelling it into the top 10 ranking of exported products.

The top exporters for the year 2024 were Indorama ElemeFertilizer & Chemical Limited and Starlink Global & Ideal Limited who rang in total receipts of $475,309,887.26 (8.71%) and $456,740,920.00 (8.37%) respectively to take the Top 2 positions from exports of Fertilizer and Cocoa products.

In terms of support for Nigerian exporters, Zenith Bank Plc, First Bank Limited and Fidelity Bank Plc were the pre-eminent financial institutions putting their money where their mouth is by contributing 39.03%, 8.44% and 6.4% respectively of the total 21,655 NXP transactions for 2024.The Top 3 banks for 2023 were Zenith Bank, UBA and First Bank.

The bulk of Nigerian exports left the country through the South West and South South with both regions contributing 90% of total exports in 2024 while the Top 3 export destinations for 2024 were Netherlands, Brazil and Malaysia. In terms of inter-African trade, Ghana led, as in the previous year, with Central African Republic and Eswatimi making a strong showing in the year under review.

There was a novel development in 2024 with positive implications for the council’s “#doubleyourexport” initiative following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s approval for CFA to be captured on NXP forms for the repatriation of export proceeds.

To prepare Nigerian exporters for global competitiveness the council under the “Go Global, Go for Certification” campaign commenced the certification of 400 SME exporters. The ED/CEO expressed optimisim that the target of 855 certifications between 2022 – 2025 will be achieved.

To bridge the knowledge gap and equip Nigerian exporters with the knowledge and skills to play globally, the NEPC held a total of 629 capacity-building programmes from the headquarters to regional offices in the 6 geo-political zones in 2024 with a record 64,378 participants taking part. This shows a remarkable uptick in capacity building and knowledge sharing when compared to 2023 which recorded 92 capacity-building programmes with 13,751 participantsattending.

A major milestone in this regard was the launch on October 17, 2024 of the Export Skills Acquisition Centre (ESAC) in Apapa, Lagos. The center is a collaborative effort between NEPC and Lelook Bag Academy.

At the NEPC the gospel of diversification goes hand-in-hand with inclusivity and Nonye Ayeni, a passionate advocate for empowering female-led businesses reported that 587 women-led businesses benefited from the council’s programmes in 2024 while “12,665 Women, Youth, And Persons with Special Needs were empowered through MSME clinics, Women in Export programmes, Youth for Export Development Programmes (YEXDEP).”

The council seems intent on continuing on the same trajectory of growth and impressive impact in 2025 with notable milestones already notched up in the first quarter.

On 28 February 2024 news came from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva announcing that the Nigerian Export Promotion Council has been chosen, out of over 600 applicants, as one of four outstanding Business Support Organizations (BSOs) to implement the First Phase of the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund. Others are Jordan, Dominican Republic & Mongolia

The WEIDE Fund is a transformative initiative powered by the WTO and the International Trade Centre (ITC). It aims to empower women entrepreneurs by helping them grow their businesses through international trade and digitalization. The NEPC was selected through a rigorous and competitive process.

Continuing in the spirit of measuring and evaluating progress, the NEPC, on Wednesday March 5, 2025, held a validation session of the baseline study report of the ongoing STDF 845 project for Cowpea & Sesame as a means of measuring progress.

The STDF 845 project is a 3 year co-funded project between the ITC and NEPC to enhance the quality of Nigeria’s Sesame & Cowpea export by ensuring compliance with pesticide residue levels & avoiding Salmonella contamination.

Adhering to sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards will help reduce rejection of Nigerian cowpea and sesame exports in the global market thereby increasing foreign exchange earnings for the Nigerian economy especially with the global market for Sesame estimated at $7.67 billion for 2025.Meanwhile the global market for Cowpea is estimated at $7.60 billion with Nigeria as the world’s largest producer of cowpeas, there could be exponentially improved receipts from cowpeas.

As Q2 2025 dawns, Nonye Ayeni and her team at the NEPC are already measuring their performance in the New Year and would not likely experience any anxieties when the time comes to submit their scorecard to the Central Delivery Coordination Unit.

***Toni Kan is a PR expert and financial analyst.