By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- Abba Bello, managing director/chief executive officer (MD/CEO) of  the  Nigerian Export-Import Bank  (NEXIM) disclosed on Thursday that Nigeria’s foremost indigenous biscuit producer Beloxxi Industries Limited has repaid the N1.0 billion loan granted for the second phase expansion of the company and NEXIM is ready to give further facility.

“NEXIM’s contribution is in the region of N1.0 billion, and as we are talking now, Beloxxi has even paid up the facility and we are having discussions on granting further enhancement and new facilities. That is how good the business is and that is why we will continue to support them,” Bello said.

The MD of Nigeria’s Export Credit Agency said NEXIM’s mandate as an agency of the Federal Government is to grow the non-oil export by participating in financing non-oil export. “With the dearth of biscuit manufacturing in Nigeria, it meant that most biscuit consumed in Nigeria is imported,” he added.

“So, Nexim came in to support Beloxxi from the outset of the business, first for import substitution, and then to facilitate the export of Beloxxi biscuit into the international market,” Bello affirmed.

“We are completely satisfied with what is going on here and wish this could be multiplied a thousand times across the length and breadth of this nation for creation of employment and value addition, as well as export from the same axis and manufacturing plant. That is what we are campaigning that we should produce, add value and export,” the NEXIM CEO said.

According to him, when Nigeria export goods without adding value,  means the nation is exporting jobs along with products been exported.

“In a nutshell, what we are doing when we export goods without adding values is that we are exporting jobs along with the products we are exporting. But when you have the full value chain, and Nigerians involved in the full value chain, you are creating employment and adding value for tax purposes and revenue generation, etc, and then export as well. There is nothing better than this. So, my satisfaction is beyond mention and I would like to see it repeated across the country,” he noted.

The CEO of Nigeria’s Export Credit Agency said Beloxxi is not the only company NEXIM has financed but it’s one of the most successful portfolios. “There is nothing like it when product is being done, employment is being created, foreign exchange is being generated and loans are being paid. You can’t ask for anything more as a bank, and you have added value to the economy, Bello said.

He further affirmed that NEXIM wants to see Beloxxi expand to its limits and to start exporting to beyond the region to across Africa and into the larger world, because they are strong enough now to compete in the global market.

He disclosed that the biscuit manufacturing company is seeking to go into the production of other products in their value chain, including things like packaging. “They out-source their packaging but want to put up a plant for packaging the biscuit in retail form, then also the cartons, because that is one of their biggest expenses now, and they can go into these areas,” he said.

Bello further affirmed that NEXIM and Beloxxi in are currently into discussion in their plans to venture into other areas embedded in the company’s value chain; but a total commitment for that is yet to be established. “We need to know some capacities that this expansion is bringing on board to know how much we need to invest in the packaging. That is the expansion we are talking about now,” he added.

Bello also disclosed that the facilities NEXIM is trying to deploy in the export sector are largely for processing. “We have grouped those products that we normally export and trying to put processing plants across the country to process them into a higher level value before we export. In the past there had been very little value addition and manufacturing, which means we were losing value along the value chain,” he noted.

The MD of NEXIM while commenting on state of roads said a lot of initiatives are on, especially roads and sea. “We are advocating and supporting a lot of logistics development. As a bank, there is little we can do, we cannot deploy all our resources into, for instance, building roads for Beloxxi, but we are working with the Federal Ministry of Transport and other government agencies to facilitate that,” he affirmed.

According to him, tor road transport, NEXIM is working in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), ECOWAS Transport Logistics, etc.

He further disclosed that Export Credit Agency is also trying to put vessels on the coast of West and Central Africa to facilitate the movement of goods and people. “That doesn’t exist as we talk,” Bello added.

He said there is some advocacy and support being done towards ensuring that logistics challenges are reduced. “We need the government and a lot of other agencies, including financial institutions, to put the transport logistics and infrastructure in place to limit the challenges that our exporters face,” the NEXIM CEO said.

He again disclosed that the bank is making efforts to ensure that at the end of the first quarter of 2018, the vessels in view are deployed. “We have already almost done everything, got the chatter, agreements in place and I think before the end of the quarter we should be able to put at least one or two vessels on the coast,” Bello said.

According to him, NEXIM is in partnership with two other bodies, supported by ECOWAS – Federation of ECOWAS Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and a logistics company in Cameroun called Transimex.

“ECOWAS is involved because of the community status, so that the people of West Africa will give the vessel a community status. For the vessel, any port in West Africa is home, and that has been achieved. We also have got the charterers (about four) on board who are ready to deploy the vessels. Currently, we have about six vessels that will eventually ply the route, but we are looking at two before the end of the quarter,” Bello added.