The Nigerian Export – Import Bank’s (NEXIM) Produce, Add Value and Export (PAVE) initiatives has earmarked N1bn for each state of the federation towards developing one or two ex-portable commodities of interest, the bank’s managing director Abba Bello has said.

Speaking in Katsina at its exporter enlightenment forum, Bello said the initiative seeks to increase the volume and array of ex portable commodities from the country.

This was in addition to enhancing the contributions of value added products in the nations export basket thereby internalising and increasing the benefits of production through jobs creation and increased export earnings, he said.

According to him, a portion of the Export Development Fund has also been set aside to support industries that are major employers of women and youth under a special economic empowerment scheme for the vulnerable groups as part of the bank’s contribution towards meeting the targets of Sustainable Development Goals.

” we have observed that Katsina state and indeed the North West is quite rich in Agricultural and mineral endowments and therefore has the capacity to benefit significantly under the programme” he said

In his remarks, the state governor Aminu Masari represented by his commissioner of commerce Abubakar Yusuf said government has already established an investment promotion agency to collaborate with NEXIM to boost export of commodities from the state.