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What The Gambia’s Study Tour to NEPC Reveals About Nigeria’s Export Future
By Kabir Abdulsalam
Sometimes, the significance of a government visit is not in who arrives, but in what they have come to learn.
That thought came to mind when I saw a post announcing that senior officials from The Gambia had arrived at the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) for a study tour of Nigeria’s non‑oil export system.
This was not the usual African diplomatic routine of courtesy calls, photographs and speeches. The Gambian delegation came with a practical mission: to examine how Nigeria has built systems for promoting non‑oil exports—and to take home lessons that could strengthen The Gambia’s own export infrastructure.
Among the officials seen in photographs were the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, and the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President.
But the most revealing detail was what caught their attention.
They were particularly interested in NEPC’s digital platforms, especially its Exporters’ Registration System, which they described as a model for The Gambia as it develops a similar platform.
This is more significant than it appears. To government, digital registration may look like another administrative reform. But to an aspiring exporter, it can be the difference between an opportunity that feels accessible and one buried under paperwork, uncertainty and multiple bureaucratic doors.
And this is where the story of the Gambian visit becomes bigger than the visit itself.
Nigeria’s Long Road to Non‑Oil Diversification
For decades, Nigeria has spoken about diversifying its economy away from crude oil. Governments have launched programmes, created institutions and announced incentives. Yet the difficult part has never been identifying what Nigeria can export.
Nigeria has plenty to sell. The harder question is whether the country can build an efficient system around the person who wants to sell it.
Consider the journey of a Nigerian producer with an exportable product. Finding a foreign buyer is only the beginning. The producer must understand the target market, meet quality requirements, obtain certification, navigate documentation, arrange logistics and deliver consistently.
Every weakness along that chain can turn an export opportunity into a lost customer.
This is why export promotion should not be reduced to the volume of goods leaving Nigerian ports. It is also about the quality of the institutions standing behind those goods.
The Numbers Show Promise—But Also a Challenge
Nigeria’s non‑oil exports reportedly rose to $6.1 billion in 2025, up from $5.46 billion the previous year. Export volume reached 8.02 million metric tonnes, and Nigerian products entered 210 markets across 120 countries.
These are encouraging numbers. But they should not be mistaken for a victory lap or proof that Nigeria has solved its export problem.
For an economy as large and diverse as Nigeria’s, these figures are better understood as evidence of what remains possible.
The opportunity is enormous. From Kano’s agricultural markets to Aba’s manufacturing clusters, from processed commodities to solid minerals and creative products, Nigeria has no shortage of potential exports.
What it has struggled with is turning that potential into a predictable export pipeline.
NEPC’s Role—and Why It Matters
This is where the work of NEPC under its Executive Director, Nonye Ayeni, becomes relevant.
The real significance of an export‑promotion agency is not how impressive its headquarters looks or how many conferences it attends. It is whether its systems make it easier for a Nigerian business to move from producing for the local market to competing internationally.
That requires institutions that understand exporters, provide usable market intelligence, reduce avoidable bureaucratic obstacles, promote standards and connect businesses to opportunities beyond Nigeria.
The Gambian delegation’s interest in NEPC’s digital registration system is a small but telling example of how such institutional improvements can have impact beyond Nigeria’s borders.
A Lesson for Africa
For too long, development knowledge has been imagined as something that flows in one direction—from Europe, North America or Asia to Africa.
But African countries increasingly have experiences worth sharing with one another.
The Gambia’s interest in Nigeria’s export‑promotion infrastructure should be seen as an opportunity for two‑way learning, not a declaration that Nigeria has arrived.
This distinction matters. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will ultimately test African institutions on precisely this point. Signing trade agreements is one thing. Equipping businesses to use them is another.
A continental market cannot be built by treaties alone. It requires exporters who understand markets, products that meet standards, digital systems that reduce friction and institutions capable of guiding businesses through the complicated journey from local production to international trade.
This is where NEPC’s role as the permanent secretariat of the ECOWAS Trade Promotion Organisations Network becomes particularly important.
The exchange with The Gambia can become part of a larger regional conversation about what works, what does not and what African trade‑promotion agencies can learn from one another.
The Real Test for Nigeria
Nigeria’s export reforms should not be measured by how many delegations visit Abuja to study them.
They should be measured by the Nigerian exporter in Kano who finds a buyer abroad, the processor in Kaduna who moves beyond selling raw commodities, the manufacturer in Aba who secures a repeat international customer, or the young entrepreneur who discovers that exporting is not reserved for large corporations.
That is where policy meets reality.
The Gambian officials may return home with ideas for a digital exporters’ registration system. Nigeria must continue building the much larger ecosystem that makes such a system useful.
Because registration alone does not create exports. Competitive products do.
Reliable standards do. Market access does. Efficient logistics do. Consistent government support does. And ultimately, capable Nigerian businesses do.
That is where policy meets reality—in the products that reach new markets, the businesses that secure repeat international buyers, the jobs created and, increasingly, in African neighbours asking a simple question:
How did you do it?
Kabir writes from Suleja, Niger State. He can be reached via: [email protected]
