The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and National Productivity Centre (NPC) have agreed to partner to enhance service delivery to the exporting community through capacity building for trade promotion officers.

The Executive Director/ CEO of NEPC, Nonye Ayeni, made this known in Abuja while receiving the Director General of NPC, Mr. Baffa Dan Agundi, in her office.

According to Ayeni, “we are committed to working with relevant stakeholders to achieve our mandate of developing and promoting the non-oil export sector with the ultimate aim to diversify the economy away from oil.”

Towards this end, she disclosed that skills development for trade promotion officers of the council was critical in stimulating staff to perform optimally given that it was pivotal to efficient service delivery to the exporting community and the general public.

However, Ayeni pointed out that for organisations to get value for money, there was a need to provide quality training with specific targets that meet current realities, particularly for a trade promotion organisation like NEPC.

Responding, Agundi said the visit to the council was prompted by the need to strengthen the existing partnership between both organisations.

He noted that the NPC was, more than ever before, willing to explore more collaborative opportunities with the council, especially now that the present administration seeks to diversify the economy to increase foreign earnings generated from the non-oil export sector.

“The NEPC has a lot to do in terms of promotion of trade and diversification of the economy for sustainable and inclusive growth,” he added.