By Bosede Olufunmi
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), in collaboration with Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has organised a one-day workshop for Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) to facilitate development of e-commerce.
The Director, Policy and Strategy (NEPC), Alhaji Shehu-Dalhatu in an address, said the training was aimed at improving their capacity at competitive international export business.
The workshop, held on Tuesday in Kano, had its theme as “utilising digital marketing as a tool to facilitate export market access”.
He said the workshop would assist exporters to leverage on online marketing as tools to enhance visibility in global market for business upscaling and increase sales.
According to him, “marketing is a tool to facilitate export market access, as the second phase of strategic collaboration between NEPC and NITDA, to assist exporters leverage on online marketing tools.
“The council’s vision is to collect the resolutions to address fundamental challenges in export business.
“We shall continue to sustain efforts in enhancing competitiveness of Nigeria exportable brands in the internal market through partnership and collaboration with relevant agencies and international development partners.
He said this would ensure Nigeria’s exporters were adequately and sufficiently prepared for any market.
“This workshop is borne out of the need to equip our exporters with digital skills admist the current global realities driven by technology and Information Technology (IT) solutions.
“The COVID-19 experience and ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine had gradually changed the world economic order.
“The use of digital marketing has become order of the day in promoting trade and breaking barriers,” he said.
Shehu-Dalhatu further explained that this would avail participants the opportunity of in-depth hands and practical knowledge of how to create official e-mail address and develop websites.
He added that it would assist in tackling frequent export challenges such as market identification, language barriers and payment acceptability.
In the same vein, the Regional Coordinator, Northwest Office, Mr Salami Akinshola, said the objective of the workshop was to acquaint MSME exporters with genetic market access criteria.
He said this would enlighten and develop exporters’ skills and other stakeholders, to keep them abreast of latest development in international business.
One of the participants, Usman Musa from Innovative System Limited who produced and packaged honey locally, said the workshop would help him to grow fast.
Papers were presented during the workshop, with the first presentation by a Planning and Monitoring Official of the NEPC, Aliu Sadiq on Digital Marketing while second paper was delivered by an official of NITDA, Mr Oguntade Adeseye, also on Digital Marketing.
