Product testing, using internationally-recognised laboratories, adds value to export-bound products. But Nigeria lacks accredited laboratories to test and certify products before export, resulting in their rejection. This is hurting non-oil export and frustrating diversification moves and job creation. Stakeholders are calling for concerted efforts to remove road blocks to the non-oil economy, Assistant Editor CHIKODIOKEREOCHA reports.
The Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Adeyemi Dipeolu, may have brought into the public domain the Federal Government’s seeming confusion on how to halt the rejection of export-bound agro-products at international markets.
Dipeolu, in a statement, perceived by not a few industry stakeholders as off the cuff, attributed the rejection of the products by the destination countries to trade politics.
He said due to international politics, some destination countries were opposed to the country’s exports because Nigeria had taken a stand on imports from them.
The presidential aide, who spoke at an interactive session with reporters in Lagos, said in international politics, it would be difficult for the present administration to harm its local industries for the benefit of a foreign nation. He said the government would not allow the importation of certain goods in which Nigeria has comparative advantage.
As far as Dipeolu is concerned, “the export rejection is all trade politics that will eventually balance out. So, it is better to be self-sufficient in food production than to rely on the importation of such food items.”
He added that Nigeria had not signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement to save the country from being a dumping ground for foreign goods.
However, while the Special Adviser’s sense of patriotism and trade protectionism are not in doubt, the preponderance of opinion by stakeholders in the non-oil export sector is that Dipeolu’s position was rather too simplistic and capable of diverting attention from the urgent need for a clear and coordinated approach to quality and standardisation for export-bound agric products.
Some of them, who spoke with The Nation, argued that trade politics was not responsible for the persistent and embarrassing rejection of Nigeria’s export products at international markets. Rather, Nigeria, they said, shot itself in the foot when it failed to put in place adequate and functional laboratories to test and certify products before export.
One of the stakeholders, an exporter, kicked his heels in, insisting that rather than blame trade politics, Nigeria must own up to her dearth of infrastructure and export regulatory agencies’ failure to adopt a quality management system approach to improve the quality of agric produce exports.
The aggrieved exporter, who pleaded anonymity, told The Nation last week that the reason the special adviser adduced for Nigeria’s harvest of export rejections was clearly at variance with the one earlier espoused by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh. The exporter quoted Ogbeh as saying: “In a globalised world, and in this era of free trade, nothing is more embarrassing and tragic than to have Nigerian goods and food items rejected in the world market. We may have treated the rejection by other economies as prejudice and discrimination. To me, this is unwise and self-defeating. The truth is that we have seriously not paid attention.”
The Minister reportedly made the comments at the launch of the Federal Government’s ‘Zero Rejects’ of agro commodities in 2016. It was Nigeria’s strategy for a single quality control management system and plan for zero reject of agricultural commodities and produce. The strategic zero reject export quality control was targeted at growing the economy through non-oil exports, especially agro commodities.
This followed the rejection and ban the European Union (EU) placed on dry beans exported from Nigeria to its members for not meeting international standards. And with Ogbeh’s warning at the launch of the policy that companies and individuals, who export substandard agric produce and other non-oil products will face tough sanctions, the stage appeared set for a major transformation of Nigeria’s export business. However, three years down the line, the policy’s benefits are yet to manifest. The rejection of Nigeria’s export products by the destination countries has continued unabated, much to the chagrin of non-oil exporters and the Federal Government’s economic diversification drive.
For instance, about 25 Nigerian produce were rejected by the EU between 2015 and 2016, according to the spokesman of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Abubakar Jimoh. He said the EU rejected the 25 exported food products from Nigeria for lack of standard. Some of the food products on the EU rejection list from Nigeria, The Nation learnt include beans, yam, cashew nuts, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil, among others.
Economy clobbered by
export rejections
In June 2015, the EU slammed a ban on Nigeria’s dried beans, citing the presence of high level of pesticides considered dangerous to human health. About a year after, precisely June 2016, it extended the ban by another three years, citing the continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria.This came after the Republic of Ireland rejected and returned five containers of beans exported from Nigeria to the country. The products were said to have been received with heaps of weevils.
The United States (US) added to Nigeria’s woes when it banned the importation of Nigeria’s Cocoa into its market. This was because Nigeria’s cocoa did not satisfy the standard required for exportation into the US. As if these were not enough to hurt Nigeria still struggling to boost non-oil export and diversify its economy and create jobs, the US authorities also recently rejected 72 tonnes of Yam exported by Nigeria to that country due to poor quality of the consignment. It was probably the most embarrassing moment in Nigeria’s transition to a non-oil economy via the stimulation of non-oil export. The rejection, which came three months after the yam shipment to the US, dashed Nigeria’s hope of realising about $8 billion in foreign exchange annually from yam export. Also, Vietnamese buyers rejected 37, 000 tonnes of Nigerian cashew, not because of poor quality this time, but because of the high price of the commodity. The product’s price volatility was said to be due to lack of conducive business environment, which made the price of raw cashew from Nigeria to be higher than the price of finished product in the international markets.
Till now, those behind the recent use of sniper to preserve beans have not been identified. The development, which went viral on social media, appeared to have caught the various standards regulatory agencies unaware. Save for moral suasion by the respective agencies, there has not been any concerted effort to trace and recall the affected batch of beans affected by the use of 2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate, otherwise marketed and known as Sniper, to preserve beans by retailers. In a bid to reverse the trend, Jimoh, who is also the NAFDAC Director, Special Duty, urged exporters to subject their products to NAFDAC’s standard and internationally accredited laboratories for proper certification. He said the screening and certification of any product for export by NAFDAC was free of charge in spite of facilities, personnel and chemical reagents used to conduct such tests.
His words:“The Federal Government is doing this as a deliberate policy to encourage our exporters and to satisfy international standards for exports. We are now appealing to our exporters not to run away from NAFDAC’s product certification. It is free and we don’t charge anything for such service. We have adequate personnel and equipment to carry out such responsibility in the country.’’
He lamented that the action of exporters has put the country’s image in bad light and also caused a huge loss to the exporters themselves, which had implication on the economy.
Inadequate test labs as
sore point
The NAFDAC image maker said the agency has six functional laboratories, which conduct various types of products test across the country. According to him, the agency has two functional laboratories in Lagos, one each in Kaduna, Agulu in Anambra, Maiduguri and Port Harcourt, while the one in Calabar has not been completed. Jimoh added that plans were on the way to establish another laboratory in Benue to serve exporters in the North-Central part of the country. He noted that the two laboratories in Lagos had been accredited internationally; that any product that gets approval from such labs would be recognised globally. While the one in Oshodi deals with food products, the one in Yaba deals mainly on drugs. Also, the Kaduna laboratory was built to serve all agricultural farm produce coming from the north for screening and certification and exportation. Although, it has the required facilities and equipment, it is still awaiting international accreditation.
This means that by the time the Calabar lab is completed and the yet-to-be-established Benue lab comes on stream, NAFDAC will boast about eight laboratories. Apart from NAFDAC, other agencies charged with ensuring that export products are properly checked and certified include Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Others include Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), among other sub-agencies.
The Nation learnt that among these agencies, there are only about 84 laboratories to test locally manufactured products or services for international standards. For Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest economy, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated at $509.9 billion, about N80.3 trillion, the 84 accredited laboratories are considered as drop in the ocean, especially when compared with other countries. For instance, South Africa with GDP of $370.3 billion has 340 accredited laboratories.
China, world’s second largest economy, boasts 337, 033 laboratories, according to the latest International Standard Organisation (ISO) report on the distribution of management system certification. Also, the US has 13, 000 accredited laboratories, while South Korea has over 7, 000 laboratories.
Similarly, Germany, India, Brazil, Egypt each has thousands of accredited laboratories, while Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya and Algeria have hundreds of laboratories each.
Many more prosperous countries have vibrant, fully accredited and certified laboratories to give their locally manufactured products and services the required competitive edge in international trade.
But this is not the case in Nigeria where manufacturers especially those in the export business continue to agonise over recurring issues of product rejection due to lack of global quality certification caused by inadequate test and metrology laboratories. Metrology, according to experts, is the science of measurement that determines the right calibration, which is accepted all over the world.
NAQS’s revised guidelines to the rescue
The Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) recently released 10 revised guidelines for exporters of agro- commodities, to address the rejection of Nigeria’s export-bound ago-allied goods by the destination countries.
Making this known in Abuja, NAQS Head of Media, Communication and Strategies Unit, Dr Chigozie Nwodo, said Nigerian agro-commodities were rejected abroad because some exporters were not following the guidelines.
According to him, there were some smuggled consignments that were not meant for export.
Agricultural items intended for export, he said, might be rejected for some reasons, but if followed properly, agro-commodities would be accepted all over the world, which would definitely boost the economy.
The absence of sanitary and phytosanitary certificate, which is normally issued after inspection and certification of the content of the cargo can cause rejection.
His words: “Sanitary must be in accordance with the conditions on the import permit of the destination country. The exporter must submit the items for inspection and certification by NAQS and obtain the applicable certificate prior to shipment.
“The produce intended for export must be free of harmful organisms or toxic substances and all information required in the sanitary/phytosanitary certificate must be provided legibly in print.
“Forgery and alteration of certificate will render the certificate invalid and make products subject to rejection. Any alteration in the date on the certificate, type of consignment, weight and volume of consignment, and authorised signature on the certificate renders it invalid. A certificate with mutilated particulars is, therefore, unacceptable.”
The NAQS chief added that wrong labeling was another obstacle because the information on the label of the cargo must be descriptive of the exact contents of the cargo as they were in the sanitary and phytosanitary certificates.
According to him, concealment of strange agro-produce in a consignment of certified commodity earns total rejection.
He also said improper export procedure and certain products require the exporter to give the NAQS advance notification of country, where export is intended.
“Exporting prohibited items is not accepted because some countries prohibit the exportation of certain agricultural items. Cargo of products on the prohibition list of the destination is liable to rejection at the port of entry,’’ Nwodo said.