NEPC Graduates Mentees of Export Mentorship Programme (EMP)
The Council in its effort at fulfilling its mandate of promoting the development and diversification of export trade, initiated an Export Mentorship Programme (EMP) aimed at raising new crop of indigenous exporters through practical hand holding and mentorship. This was largely due to the difficulty faced by new exporters in navigating the export terrain.
In 2022, the Council initiated the EMP in order to bridge this gap and provide a platform where inexperienced exporters will be attached to performing exporters for tutelage for a certain incubation period. This initiative seeks to expose the new exporters to the practical realities of export business.
In kickstarting the EMP initiative, the Council advocated to some of the nation’s top performing exporters and seek their support and buy-in into the NEPC’s EMP requesting their participation by serving as Mentors to the prospective exporters (Mentees). The NEPC commenced the EMP’s through a painstaking process where registered exporters on her database were shortlisted and subjected to the NEPC Export-Readiness Assessment Check as well as other due diligence checks.
Fifty (50) prospective mentees were selected for the pilot phase in Feb/Mar 2023, and were posted to 5 performing exporters to mentor them. The mentorship process had a 6 – 12 weeks duration depending on the Mentor/Mentee’s pace. Fifteen (15) out of the 50 Mentees successfully completed the mentorship programmes, learnt the ropes of export business and are ready to commence their foray into the non-oil export space.
The Council on Tuesday 31st October at the NEPC Conference Hall, Abuja, formally launched the Export Mentorship Programme (EMP) and presented Certificate of Participation to the 15 successful Mentees with the Mentors companies in attendance. The ED/CEO, Mrs. Nonye Ayeni, presented certificates to the successful Mentees.In effort to ensure that the EMP is institutionalized, stakeholder partners comprising financial institutions (Zenith bank, NEXIM, Jaiz bank and Sterling bank) were present and pledged their support to providing funding support for the Mentees geared at enabling them actualize their export venture under the supervision of the Mentors.
