 I'd like to thank the NEPC for the very kind invitation to this extremely important and timely conference and of course the board and management of the NEPC must be commended also for the foresight to organize this event and for putting it together so expertly. I bring you also the very warm greetings of the president, President Mohammed Buhari, to all stakeholders here we see and salute your contributions to our ongoing drive to urgently and extensively unlock the full potential of our country's non-export economy and there's so many of you here who have contributed to that either as regulators or actual operators. The theme export for survival carries an urgency that perfectly frames the challenges that we will increasingly face if we do not accelerate the diversification of the Nigerian economy but we understand and we fully appreciate the extensive impact that this will have on our people and so we are committed to moving quickly and shortly. Our considered response so far has been carried out in the light of first the dynamism of the Nigerian people and our multi-sectoral potential for innovation and productivity at scale. Second, the responsibility of government at all levels in leading the charge to unlocking this potential and this involves not just the federal government but the states also. We are on our way with respect to all of our commitments. The challenge facing our non-oil export economy should be viewed especially in the light of what has transpired in the last eight years. In 2021 Nigeria's non-oil revenue stood at about 1.15 trillion Naira which represented a growth then of about 4.75% in the fourth quarter especially and a contribution of about 92.51% to the nation's overall GDP. So in actual fact the non-oil economy has always contributed of course significantly the majority if you like or most to the to our GDP. In 2019 the year preceding COVID-19 non-oil revenue represented 92.68% of our total GDP so there again almost a you know almost a 1% increase. The growth following the year indicates the growing resilience of our non-oil export sector and it's very clear that we've also become even more even more susceptible to growth as opposed to shocks. So it's becoming evident now that we are more resilient it's we're more able to resist some of the international and you can see even today with the what is going on in the supply chain especially with the Ukrainian invasion and all of that you'll see that clearly if we were not concentrating on local production it would be extremely difficult to cope and as you've heard you know they from the SGF some of what we're doing especially in the rice sector and in some other areas especially in the crop sector beyond these numbers that we see and we hear are human stories of bold visions and grit persistent innovation and the unflagging spirit of Nigerians across the country who are building model companies and businesses hands deep in the plow some of our best stories of course are in the tech sector in the last seven years six tech companies have become unicorns companies valued at over one billion dollars each and all of this and all of this between two recessions so it's evident that there is a lot that's going on and one of the reasons why you'll find that the tech sector is going so well is because I believe of the very light hand of the regulatory sector upon it and this is one of the things that we must seek to achieve we must seek to achieve a situation where regulators see themselves as facilitators of business as opposed to policemen or those who may just provide some obstacles and this has been the focus and this has been the focus of a lot of the work that the ministry of industry industry trade and investment has focused on especially with the MSME clinics where we've tried to show that the very best approach is for regulators to see themselves as those that must promote business and that their success will be measured against the success of business you know and this is I think one of the very important innovations that has been brought to bear through the MSME clinics so our job as government is to assiduously enable businesses especially with regulatory policies and procedures and processes that are continuously optimized for greater efficiency and easing the flow of business across the sectors and this must be coupled urgently with the supporting infrastructure needed to aid production distribution and export again in this sector we are certainly on the way the core mandate of our presidential enabling business environment council has recently found expression in the national action plan which we call NAP 7.0 on the ease of doing business and it is programmed to consolidate on the removal of regulatory constraints especially around agro exports and to drive the electronic filing of taxes and publication of insolvency regulations pursuant to the companies and allied matters act 2020 so the NAP 7.0 agro export plan prioritizes port and trade facilitation reforms to minimize cross-border trade and transport logistics and for Nigerian companies to do better and to be more more compliant with the AFCTA export compliance regulations these interventions that we are seeing are to be complemented by improved automation and we expect that this will be the case as when we bring in the national single window the national single window has been long in coming but this is going to make a sea change especially in trade facilitation and of course for exports in that sector and this of course is also in line with the trade facilitation agreements that we've signed with the World Trade Organization the plan for reduction of cargo clearance time has also begun with the facilitation through with the facilitation of the of imports and exports with the introduction of scanners the installation of scanners supported also by the port community that also is a very important feature because one of the major problems and complaints that we have is that there's always physical inspection of goods as they come in or go out but now with these scanners we hope that physical inspection will be greatly reduced and again once we're able to fully implement the national single window clearly we'll do a lot better in terms of reducing all of the obstacles in the way of in the way of exports we also have extended as you know the legacy burden standard gauge rail to the apapa ports and this is very important because obviously it will lead to easier movement of goods and cargo out of the port area and this is a long side the ongoing construction of the apapa or jota expressway in Lagos as well as other feeder roads especially around the ports we have continued to meet the challenges facing us head on and there are many challenges but you must and I'm sure that all of us will agree that the federal government's commitment to infrastructure and to infrastructure development and also to looking for ways of funding all especially industry trade and investment funding our exports funding industry in every possible way is one is one commitment that we have taken very very seriously indeed recently of course you've heard about the infrastructure cooperation of Nigeria infraco which was launched in 2021 with an initial seat capital of one trillion nair this is an urgent response of course to our infrastructure needs but the infrastructure needs are great we have almost 300 billion dollars in infrastructural deficit but we must start somewhere and our infraco is one of the very important ways by which we are starting that whole process this follows an 8.9 trillion investment on infrastructure in the last five years this is the largest infrastructure investment by any government at least in the past 20 years or so and this covers rail roads power broadband connectivity and all of that was sustained and accelerated despite the interruptions and the downturn in the economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic but the effort of the government must succeed within the deliberate collaborative frameworks that allow for seamless cooperation between the public and private sector operators government agencies states and of course all of our private sector partners in particular this is why we are as optimistic about the opportunities presented by the african free trade continental area agreements which were thrown our full weight behind we are determined to enhance the competitiveness of our businesses within what is poised to become one of the largest regional single markets in the world and this is why our export development fund under the nigeria export promotion council has committed 50 billion naira to help position the export oriented nigerian businesses to play competitively within this growing regional market by building programs as well as as business grants and i think that that fund is one that is not just innovative in the way that has been set up but in its implementation i think the transparency of that of the implementation is one for which the npc must be commended and of course the minister so our commitment to deepening our productive and export capacity in the coming months and years is also evidenced by the national development plan 2021 2021 to 2025 the strategic objectives of the national development plan show clearly where we're headed in terms of the non oil export economy and this includes the establishment of a strong foundation for a diversified economy investing in critical infrastructure enabling human capital development and improving governance and strengthening security all of which we expect will contribute significantly to achieving our national development aspirations the cornerstone of the thinking around the plan is productivity productivity we think is really the way to go we have to we have to focus all our attention on being productive local investment is perhaps even more important than foreign investment once we enable the the the environment for local investment once we show that our sole focus will be on productivity which of course will also be the guiding principle for our regulatory agencies that what we're interested in is productivity is productivity that will bring jobs that's what will bring the income that's what will bring the growth that we expect and of course that will conduce to export so the focus of the of the of the plan the cornerstone of the plan is productivity and that will be the watchword of our of our economy as we go forward we're determined to accelerate our efforts through holistic stakeholder input and this is why this conference is of immense value the robust multi-sectoral representation that's here clearly underlines your well-considered appraisal of the wide spectrum of our non oil sector value chain and we trust that the deliberations here at this conference will and the vigorous exchanges which we expect to happen will yield practical and far-reaching recommendations which I hope will further reinvigorate the non oil sector and the economy at large we hope that in the coming months and years all of the effort which has been put into developing the non oil sector will begin to yield tangible we'll begin to really tangible results and we expect that all our partners especially the private sector will will see the plans and we'll see the plans has been genuine has been inspirational as we expect them to be and will make make them even more committed to developing the Nigerian economy again let me commend the the ministers of industry trade and investment of the minister and the only minister of state for their visionary leadership of that sector and I think that they've done so well I think they've done so well so well indeed and we expect them to do even more thank you very much God bless you