Experts urge FG to improve on foreign trade, domestic economy

By The Citizen

Some financial industry stakeholders on Friday urged the Federal Government to enhance the nation's foreign trade by expanding the nation's domestic economy.

They said in separate interviews in Lagos that the ability to maximise the full potential of increased foreign trade depends on sustainable local economic growth.

The Chief Executive Officer of Cowery Assets Management, Mr. Johnson Chukwu said that only a conscious effort toward assisting indigenous companies in manufacturing, quality control and the elimination of export problems would leverage the value of the nation's foreign trade.

Chukwu said that harnessing the comparative advantage remains the nation's key driver in penetrating the international market outside crude oil.

'We should focus more in areas where our strength lies and improved on it. We should learn from other countries that effectively utilized their greatest potential to assert interest in global trade,' he said.

Mr Tijani Adewale, Chief Executive Officer of Torac Ventures said that only an articulated domestic policy on business based on national interest would assure Nigerian manufacturing companies a place in international trade.

Adewale said that contrary to other opinions, global trade 'is moderated by reciprocity.'

'Contemporary foreign trade usually takes places among countries with similar interest and ideas. The business ideas of many countries in the Europe and America with similar government are almost the same and it makes them compactable in business,' he said.