Abstract
The study undertook a critical appraisal of marketing communications’ tools for the promotion of non-oil exports by small and medium-scale agro-produce entrepreneurs in Nigeria. It was motivated by the problem of low performance of the non-oil export sub-sector in the country. This is in spite of government’s incentives and the introduction of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in May 2000 by the United States of America, which was to improve export of products particularly in agriculture from Sub-Saharan Africa to the United States. The focus of AGOA was to enhance the economic growth of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa through export leverages rooted in the reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers. The specific objectives of the study were to: determine the effect of internet-marketing communications media as tools for promoting small and medium-scale farming entrepreneurs’ non-oil exports from Nigeria; and ascertain the effect of social-media communications as tools for promoting small and medium-scale farming entrepreneurs’ non-oil exports from Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted in the study. The sample frame comprised small and medium-scale agro-produce farmers drawn from three States representing the three-former regional structure of the country. Data sourced were statistically analyzed. Results indicate that both internet marketing and social media communications were not yet significant for promoting non-oil exports by small and medium-scale farming entrepreneurs from Nigeria, because of other serious diluting variables like poor products’ quality, packaging, processing, storage and other systemic bottlenecks. It was then recommended that the Governments in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria, should introduce and educate small and medium-scale agro-produce entrepreneurs wishing to go into non-oil exports, among other things, to improve their products’ qualities to meet international markets’ standards, before employing internet and social media marketing communications to create global awareness and demands for them.
Highlights
A critical review of Nigeria’s revenue base reveals that the non-oil export sub-sector has continued to perform dismally since the 1970s till date
AGOA was designed as an economic policy by the US government to assist in the export of products in agriculture from Sub-Saharan African countries to the United States of America (Scheneidman and Lewis, 2012)
Social-media communications tools will not significantly serve as vehicles for boosting small and medium-scale farmers non-oil exports from Nigeria. The implications of these results is that the applications of internet-marketing communications media and social-media communications networks are not enough for the boosting of Nigeria’s small and medium-scale farmers non-oil exports
Summary
A critical review of Nigeria’s revenue base reveals that the non-oil export sub-sector has continued to perform dismally since the 1970s till date. Agriculture which served as the mainstay of the economy before the discovery of crude oil in the late 1960s has been relegated to the background and characterized by low productivity (Abogan, Akinola and Baruwa, 2014). This makes it difficult for small and medium-scale agro-produce entrepreneurs to contribute meaningfully to the nation’s economic diversification policy and its non-oil exports drives, despite the introduction of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in May 2000 by the United States of America. The focus of AGOA was to encourage the economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa countries through export leverage in the reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers as an incentive towards boosting trade relations with the United States of America (Akanji, 2007)
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