Boosting Non-oil Export Revenue in Nigeria Through Non-traditional Agricultural Export Commodities: How Feasible?

Abstract

Available data indicated that, some traditional agricultural export commodities like cocoa and rubber have remained on Nigeria’s agricultural export list, while others like groundnut and coffee have almost disappeared from the export list. In the same vein, non-traditional agricultural export commodities like sesame seed and cashew nuts have started featuring prominently on the export list. In line with theory, the econometric analysis carried out confirmed that a major policy change, which can provide a boost for agricultural exports, is the depreciation of the real exchange rate. For all the agricultural export commodities analyzed in the study, the coefficient of the exchange rate was positive and highly significant.