Nigeria needs to increase trade’s input to GDP, says Commonwealth

By Anthony Otaru, Abuja

 The contribution of trade to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could be higher if the nation’s data collections are strengthened, a Commonwealth consultant Henry Eleama, has said.

Eleama stressed that improving Nigeria’s trade has become more necessary as the sector constitutes two-third to the global economy and ranks as the fastest-growing component. He said: “we need statistics to grow our services sector”.

He spoke yesterday at the inauguration of the National Consultative Committee on International Trade in Service (NCCITS) in Abuja.

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The Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Segun Awolowo, chairs the committee. NCCITS is expected to provide a coordination platform for orderly data collection, compilation, analysis, storage and dissemination of statistical information about development in Nigeria’s trade.

Eleama explained that the collaboration between NEPC and the Commonwealth would facilitate the implementation of the major outcomes of some of the key components of the “Nigeria trade in Services Programme in the areas of baseline survey”.

According to him, the development of the statistics of trade in services in Nigeria would help the country evaluate performance of the sector in the overall good of the economy.

“Successful implementation would enable the Council, the Commonwealth and other major stakeholders to access adequately veritable data for planning and policy formulation, including performance measurements and evaluation,” he said.