I came across this article on the internet while searching for professional investment tips. I thought I'd share it with you guys.


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Nigerian FMCG Exports To ECOWAS
GoArticles.com

In recent times, the Federal Government of Nigeria has doubled its efforts to re-invent its international sources of revenue by diversifying its non-oil exports to foreign countries. In this attempt, Nigeria hopes to recapture its surrounding ECOWAS markets and to penetrate into the West African Francophone economies by exporting made in Nigeria goods to them.

Traces of made in Nigeria products have over the years been greatly found in many Anglophone West African States. However this cannot be said to be so in Nigeria's surrounding francophone countries. These countries turn more to France for the purchase and importation of their basic domestic, social and industrial needs rather than to the buoyant manufacturing Anglophone nation beside them - Nigeria. From all indications, the possibility of differences in product quality has hardly ever been raised. This is because Nigerian products are reputed for been champions in the categories they compete in. Nigerian manufacturers through government subsidies in most cases, acquire cutting edge technologies from Asia, Europe and North America for their industries and produce under very strict production principles and controls. Trade liberalization and the free movement of goods within the economic community of West African States has also not been as much of a stumbling block as widely publicized. This is owing to the fact that a good extent of the liberalization program is implemented in West African borders and the few unimplemented stumbling blocks can be not be categorized as been formidable barriers to importation and trade for determined traders and manufacturers. The big business problem that neither the Francophone governments nor the Anglophone governments can solve in the short-term is the difference in business language.

The central body of the member states of the West African economic community (ECOWAS) has implemented various reforms aimed at accelerating regional integration. Most of these, like the mandatory learning of either French or English at the primary and secondary stages of education and the facilitation of student exchange programs between Anglophone and Francophone West African countries, effective as they may seem, are geared toward the long term. This seems not to be an adequate solution for manufacturers who seemingly want solutions positioned for the short term as well as for the long term. To accelerate business between Nigerian manufacturers and West African importers/distributors, the Nigerian business community seems to have spontaneously evolved its own solution to the perennial problem of language difference. This solution seems to have been found in the use of bilingual business services companies who fill this gap between Nigerian manufacturers and their Francophone West and Central Africa customers. These business services companies, generally known as Regional Expansion Partners (REP), work essentially as extensions of the sales & marketing departments of their manufacturing clients by integrating themselves into the daily business activities and lives of the manufacturers. Prominently identified amongst the REP companies in Nigeria are:

CIMREP International
Companies International Markets & Regional Expansion Partners - This is a privately run company which specializes in helping Nigerian manufacturers expand their market share and businesses into West African markets. The company employs highly skilled bilingual business managers who speak fluent French and English and are former sales & marketing managers of large multinational manufacturing companies. These bilingual business managers are usually widely traveled within West/Central Africa and understand the business environment of Francophone Africa. They achieve their tasks through field visits whereby they determine the best markets for their customers' products, through the articulation and structuring of a competitive entry strategy for their clients and then through the MIH stage (Making It Happen) whereby their clients' products are actually exported to the various markets in West and Central Africa. They are open to all manufacturers and are reputed for been highly professional.

NEPC
Nigerian Export promotion Council - This is a government run agency with the global responsibility of promoting non-oil exports from Nigeria to foreign countries. Its outreach is more diversified. It covers all the continents of the world while still paying particular attention to each continent. It has a crop of bilingual officers who help facilitate business exchange and exportation between Nigeria and other francophone West African states. Every exporter is bound to pass through this council at some stage of its exportation - registration, exportation documents, etc - but is not bound to involve the council in its commercial strategy though the council also renders that service. The council has a good reputation for professionalism.

The Future
According to ITC COMTRADE statistics, total imports into West Africa in 2010, excluding Nigeria, was about $14 billion. If the large spate of informal importation and informal cross border trade is factored into this figure, it would be even bigger. In the bid of the Nigerian government to make non-oil products a significant contributor to the Nigerian GDP, it is expected that the coming years will gradually draw in the benefits of the long-term programs, like the Exportation Expansion Grant (EEG) already put in place by the Federal Government of Nigeria.



Ref :
http://goarticles.com/article/Nigerian-FMCG-Exports-To-ECOWAS/7833619/

baltty: I came across this article on the internet while searching for professional investment tips. I thought I'd share it with you guys.


**********************************************************************

Nigerian FMCG Exports To ECOWAS
GoArticles.com

In recent times, the Federal Government of Nigeria has doubled its efforts to re-invent its international sources of revenue by diversifying its non-oil exports to foreign countries. In this attempt, Nigeria hopes to recapture its surrounding ECOWAS markets and to penetrate into the West African Francophone economies by exporting made in Nigeria goods to them.

Traces of made in Nigeria products have over the years been greatly found in many Anglophone West African States. However this cannot be said to be so in Nigeria's surrounding francophone countries. These countries turn more to France for the purchase and importation of their basic domestic, social and industrial needs rather than to the buoyant manufacturing Anglophone nation beside them - Nigeria. From all indications, the possibility of differences in product quality has hardly ever been raised. This is because Nigerian products are reputed for been champions in the categories they compete in. Nigerian manufacturers through government subsidies in most cases, acquire cutting edge technologies from Asia, Europe and North America for their industries and produce under very strict production principles and controls. Trade liberalization and the free movement of goods within the economic community of West African States has also not been as much of a stumbling block as widely publicized. This is owing to the fact that a good extent of the liberalization program is implemented in West African borders and the few unimplemented stumbling blocks can be not be categorized as been formidable barriers to importation and trade for determined traders and manufacturers. The big business problem that neither the Francophone governments nor the Anglophone governments can solve in the short-term is the difference in business language.

The central body of the member states of the West African economic community (ECOWAS) has implemented various reforms aimed at accelerating regional integration. Most of these, like the mandatory learning of either French or English at the primary and secondary stages of education and the facilitation of student exchange programs between Anglophone and Francophone West African countries, effective as they may seem, are geared toward the long term. This seems not to be an adequate solution for manufacturers who seemingly want solutions positioned for the short term as well as for the long term. To accelerate business between Nigerian manufacturers and West African importers/distributors, the Nigerian business community seems to have spontaneously evolved its own solution to the perennial problem of language difference. This solution seems to have been found in the use of bilingual business services companies who fill this gap between Nigerian manufacturers and their Francophone West and Central Africa customers. These business services companies, generally known as Regional Expansion Partners (REP), work essentially as extensions of the sales & marketing departments of their manufacturing clients by integrating themselves into the daily business activities and lives of the manufacturers. Prominently identified amongst the REP companies in Nigeria are:

CIMREP International
Companies International Markets & Regional Expansion Partners - This is a privately run company which specializes in helping Nigerian manufacturers expand their market share and businesses into West African markets. The company employs highly skilled bilingual business managers who speak fluent French and English and are former sales & marketing managers of large multinational manufacturing companies. These bilingual business managers are usually widely traveled within West/Central Africa and understand the business environment of Francophone Africa. They achieve their tasks through field visits whereby they determine the best markets for their customers' products, through the articulation and structuring of a competitive entry strategy for their clients and then through the MIH stage (Making It Happen) whereby their clients' products are actually exported to the various markets in West and Central Africa. They are open to all manufacturers and are reputed for been highly professional.

NEPC
Nigerian Export promotion Council - This is a government run agency with the global responsibility of promoting non-oil exports from Nigeria to foreign countries. Its outreach is more diversified. It covers all the continents of the world while still paying particular attention to each continent. It has a crop of bilingual officers who help facilitate business exchange and exportation between Nigeria and other francophone West African states. Every exporter is bound to pass through this council at some stage of its exportation - registration, exportation documents, etc - but is not bound to involve the council in its commercial strategy though the council also renders that service. The council has a good reputation for professionalism.

The Future
According to ITC COMTRADE statistics, total imports into West Africa in 2010, excluding Nigeria, was about $14 billion. If the large spate of informal importation and informal cross border trade is factored into this figure, it would be even bigger. In the bid of the Nigerian government to make non-oil products a significant contributor to the Nigerian GDP, it is expected that the coming years will gradually draw in the benefits of the long-term programs, like the Exportation Expansion Grant (EEG) already put in place by the Federal Government of Nigeria.



Ref :
http://goarticles.com/article/Nigerian-FMCG-Exports-To-ECOWAS/7833619/

Nice write up on the exportation activities and efforts going on in Naija. I also came across the article but didnt have the patience to stop and read it. Thanks for pasting it here. It made it easier for me.