There is nowhere in Nigeria’s trade data where export of $270million to Saudi Arabia by a single company or consortium of companies was ever recorded in 2024, NewsSpecng learnt.
Nigeria’s total agro export trade to Saudi Arabia in the year in question was less than $500,000.00. This has made exporters wonder where these bogus claims are coming from.
A group, concerned citizens with the Nigerian exporters have expressed dismay on a promo running on different media amd various social media handles inviting people to attend a free online training on e-commerce as a catalyst for export trade facilitation by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
The promo commenced with the Anchorman, one Sir Abdullah of Easy Sales Export boldly declaring that “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave me $270 million.” Listening to this opening line created the impression that the promo was a skit or prank meant to create content on social media. The promo continues “I am not afraid to say it, yes, I am not joking”. The presenter then narrated how President Ahmed Bola Tinubu went to an economic summit in 2024 in Saudi Arabia where he signed a trade deal with Saudi Arabia to export soya beans and red meat worth $270million.
“The narrator further stated how he keyed into the trade deal by exporting agro products to Saudi Arabia. He failed to indicate the year of export and the specific nature of his agro product he claimed to have exported to Saudi Arabia, that is, whether soya beans was included or not. Clearly red meat is not an agro product. Considering the various documentations, logistics constraints and bureaucratic bottleneck associated with Nigerian exports, how could he have harnessed or reaped the benefit of a trade deal that is far less than a year?
“Though the opening line of the promo might have attracted many views because of its affiliation to President Tinubu, the narrative however was totally false, misleading and mischievous. It was earlier reported that the Minister of Agriculture, Senator Abubakar Kyari had informed the nation of ongoing trade agreements with Saudi Arabia to include the annual export of 200,000 metric tons of red meat and one million tons of soya beans.
“The Minister briefed journalists at the end of the 142nd National Economic Council meeting. This was apparently the trade deal that the NEPC cited in its promo.
Going by the report credited to the Minister of Agriculture, it is clear that the combined value of the 200,000 metric tons of red meat and one million tonnes of soya beans is far higher than the $270million quoted in the promo.
“The promo might have intended to attract political subterfuge by the NEPC management as exhibited in constant reference to President Tinubu, it ended up being a woeful disservice and a PR nightmare for the Government.
While the promo did a bad job at trying to project the successes being recorded by President Tinubu’s administration, it did much worse by directly attacking the Government and its public stance on key economic issues”.
The stakeholders in the statement noted that, “Part of the advert stated that Life is hard in Nigeria, fuel is expensive, food prices are high, dollar rate is crazy, people are angry, clearly, this is a direct hit at the Government. One wonders whether the NEPC is a Government organisation under Tinubu’s administration or its Management has pitched its tents with an opposition party. There are some issues, even if they are true, ought not to be uttered by appointees of Mr. President”.
If one may ask, what then is the difference between the assertion by the NEPC Management on Nigeria’s economic status and the song of Eedris Abdulkareem “Tell your Papa”.
One would recall that in that song, Mr. Abdulkareem simply sang “Tell your Papa, country hard… hunger dey, anger dey, to buy food na luxury”. Needless to say, a few days after its release, this song was banned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). Justifying the ban, the Commission stated that it found the song’s content to be “inappropriate” and “objectionable” as it violated public decency and standards on broadcast platforms.
Can someone meticulously consider Eedris Abdulkareem’s lyrics in “Tell your Papa” alongside NEPC’s promo “Life is hard in Nigeria, fuel is expensive, food prices are high, dollar rate is crazy, people are angry.” If Eedris Abdulkareem’s song was banned for being “inappropriate and objectionable”, the NEPC’s promo should also be banned for being outrageously malicious, incitful and a direct affront on the Government of President Tinubu. It is worse coming from a government agency. If the Management of the NEPC is trying to launder its image, must it ridicule the Government?
While probing further to ascertain the veracity of the content of the promo by the NEPC, we visited the website of Easy Sales Export, (www.easysalesexport.com/), the company that claimed to have exported $270million worth of agro products to Saudi Arabia. From its website which was accessed at 7:20pm on Monday, 21st April, 2025, the company shared its various success stories without making reference to the $270million export or indeed any export to Saudi Arabia. There is no indication on its website that the company ever exported to Saudi Arabia talk less of leveraging on “the $270 million trade deal by President Tinubu”.
“The only reference to Saudi Arabia on its website is that it helped a mid-sized manufacturing company expand into Saudi Arabian markets, resulting in a 40% increase in revenue within the first year”. The value, volume, product and year of that export transaction was not indicated. This further raised pertinent questions about the authenticity of the $270million export by the company to Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, the NEPC promo stated that “the same President Bola Ahmed Tinubu instructed the Nigerian Export Promotion Council to train, equip and facilitate Nigerians on how to grow in Export”. This assertion is to say the least demeaning to the person and office of Mr. President. It is highly doubtful if Mr. President ever issue such an instruction to the NEPC. If however Mr. President did issued such directive, it would have been widely publicised in both the traditional and social media platforms or at least a statement would have been issued by the Presidential spokesperson in that regard.
It is therefore intriguing what the NEPC Management is trying to achieve with these spurious statements that can easily be fact checked.
The statement said, assuming Mr. President did issue the instruction as claimed by the NEPC, then it goes to show how inept or inefficient NEPC Management is. Could they have waited for Mr. President to issue that statement before taking steps to train Nigerians on how to export?. The instruction by Mr. President should therefore be taken as a vote of no confidence to the Executive Secretary of the NEPC, Mrs. Nonye Ayeni and her Management team. This is because one of the main functions or responsibilities of the NEPC as contained in its establishment Act is to train or build capacity of Nigerian exporters in such areas as export procedure and documentation, transportation, financing, marketing techniques, quality control, export packaging, costing and pricing, publicity and other similar areas.
Why then would the NEPC have to wait for Mr. President to issue an instruction before carrying out its basic statutory duties? Another sad aspect of that promo is NEPC’s tacit endorsement of export of agro products which is clearly at variance with Government disposition on export of commodities. As the institution in charge of promoting non oil export goods from Nigeria, the NEPC should have known the negative implications of encouraging export of agro products as against manufactured or value added products that are being encouraged by the Government.
It is high time for Public Officers to be held accountable for their actions and statements.
The days of impunity and lacklustre attitude to public service should be over. The practice of feeding the public with fake news as a face-saving measure or to achieve a hidden agenda should be viewed seriously by the Government. Whatever purpose the promo wanted to achieve, it did more harm than good to both the NEPC and the Government of the day. It is bad publicity for the Government. Eedris Abdulkareem would have smiled with satisfaction if he had watched that promo.
