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Tag: Agric export

  • Nigeria targets agric export for $1tr economy

    Nigeria targets agric export for $1tr economy

    With the Federal Government targeting a $1trillion economy by 2030, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole has pledged to push for Nigeria’s agricultural products to be exported to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and overseas market.

    Additionally, initiatives are underway to double Nigeria’s annual production of cashew and cocoa from 250,000 to 500,000 metric tonnes, respectively.

    Addressing the 25th anniversary and award ceremony of Starlink Global and ideal Limited, in Lagos, the Minister emphasised the transformative impact of exports, asserting the government’s resolve to revolutionise the sector by enhancing the Export Expansion Grant, streamlining regulatory processes, and fostering a more favorable business environment for exporters.

    The minister, represented by Princess Toyin Johnson Akeredolu, emphasised the potential of the nation’s robust agro export sector to invigorate the economy. She highlighted the importance of fostering collaboration among companies to enhance trade and investment connections within the country. Furthermore, she noted that organisations such as Starlink Global and Ideal Limited are generating substantial revenue through the export of cashew, cocoa, and other cash crops. This scenario, she indicated, presents an opportunity for the government to partner with private sector organisations and agro producers to unlock new business and trade opportunities, especially  agricultural exports.

    The National Coordinator of the Nigeria AfCFTA Coordination Office, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, stated that the common market created under the AfCFTA has the capacity to generate $50 billion in agricultural product exports each year. He highlighted that the agricultural sector could yield substantial returns, which would be vital for enhancing food security, creating jobs, and reducing poverty. He urged exporters to take advantage of the AfCFTA to engage with the extensive African market, which includes 1.6 billion people and boasts a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $1 trillion.

    Read Also: Agric export soars despite COVID-19

    The Managing Director of Starlink Global and Ideal Limited, Alhaji Adeyemi Adeniji, stated that the company has obtained $20.8 million from Afreximbank to construct and operate a cashew processing facility in Lagos, which will have an annual capacity of 30,000 metric tonnes

    According to the facility agreement signed in July this year, the funding will be provided in two phases: the first phase will allocate $7.48 million for capital expenditures associated with the construction of the factory, while the second installment, amounting to $13.25 million, will be utilised as working capital for its operations.

    The facility, he noted, is expected to promote value addition which will guarantee increased earnings to the company while also fostering the creation of about 400 new jobs once the factory becomes operational. It is also expected to support about 40 small and medium-sized enterprises.

    He also announced the company’s acquisition of Multi-Trex Integrated Foods Plc from AMCON.

    To enable the Federal Government, achieve an increase in the annual cashew and cocoa production volume, he indicated that the company is partnering with Odua Investments for the cultivation of 25,000 hectares of land. His words: “We are partnering with them to go for backward integration in the next five years. We are going to invest about N7 billion in cocoa and cashew production. We have identified two places. Each has a pilot for 5000 hectares each. And we scale up with time. If the government now sees what we are doing, we expect the government to come and support. We are not going to wait for the government.”

    To further assist the export of agricultural products, Adeniji said his organisation was supporting new and existing exporters to actively expand overseas markets.

  • Bankers’ Committee earmarks N200b for agric export

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)-backed Bankers’ Committee yesterday approved N200 billion facility to support and standardize agricultural produce exportation.

    The funds will be disbursed by commercial banks at single digit interest rate and 10-year tenor.

    Speaking at the end of Bankers’ Committee meeting in Lagos, Managing Director, United Bank for Africa, Kennedy Uzoka, said since the Bankers’ Committee retreat last December, the committee has been looking for way of assisting Nigerian farmers in the area of exporting their farm produce.

    The products that will be targeted according to the committee, include, oil palm, cocoa, cashew nuts, sesame seeds and shea butter.

    He said the committee expects the exports of these products which is in abundant across the country to boost our foreign exchange earnings.

    The banks said at the end of the meeting in Lagos that they have come up with an immediate, medium and long term plans to address the issues.

    “Towards the end of last year, the banking community under the supervision of the Central Bank of Nigeria had our retreat at the theme of that retreat was how we can transform our economy through export.   We set up a sub-committee to look into issues and the members of that sub-committee consist of people who have operated in geographies in our continent where exports have done very well”.

    “We interrogated this and we worked with different government agencies across the African continent and also we came back home to check what we have and we found out that indeed we have a lot of policies but the challenge has been execution. And we narrowed this down to seven broad areas and typically people will say we don’t have money, which is true, finance is one of the major challenges but we also  saw logistic as a challenge and also policies. We believe that a lot of polices around exportation need to be changed if we want to really make and headway”, Uzoka said.

    Also speaking, CBN Director, Banking Supervision,  Ahmed Abdulahi, said the first three months in the year have been good for the country despite being period for general election as the country recorded an inflow of $6 billion.

    He said this must be attributed to the positive sentiment around the economy in the period despite headwinds recorded in major economies of the world.

    His words: “The first three months in the year have been very good to us as a country. $6 billion came into the economy between January and March this year and this was because of our insistence to conform to the import substitution programmes, the Anchor Borrowers Scheme and other new initiatives of the bankers committee”.

    The committee also disclosed plans to pay more attention to the creative industry. It said it will be a single digit facility with 10 years period. Pointing out that the collateral will be flexible base on their value chains.

    Managing Director, Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, said the committee noted that emphasis will be on practitioners that are in the business full time. The areas are movie, music, fashion and information technology.

    He added that the committee after a lot of research identified the creative and IT sector as a critical sectors to support social and inclusive growth in Nigeria.

    He said the sector would generate a significant amount of employment given that Nigerians involved in the creative sector have done well in music and others.

     

     

  • Agric export rises by 150% in one year

    Agricultural commodities export exceeded 150 per cent in the last one year, the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) has said.

    The increase was a result of the agency’s sustained sensitisation to ensure exporters of agricultural products complied with international standards.

    Making this known to reporters, during the kick-off of sensitisation on export of various crops, the Coordinating Director of NAQS, Dr. Vincent Isegbe, said the exercise was aimed at knowing how to export agric produce.

    “Agric export has increased by 150 per cent in the last one year, according to the Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). We believe it has gone beyond that percentage,” Isegbe said, adding that the agency was going from state to state, and also using radio and television to complement its efforts.

    He said, for instance, that there was a high demand for Nigeria’s yam, which exporters were responding to with the agency’s support.

    “Yam export has continued ever since and people are even getting more and more orders to export yam. Somebody has about 400, 000 tubers of yam to export and he is doing it.

    “After that incident, he is still exporting yams. We are working together with him as an agency and he has no issues,” Isegbe said.

    The NAQS boss, however, in a statement signed by its Head, Media and Public Relations, Dr. Gozie Nwodo, condemned the use of some containers to pack commodities for export, thereby endangering the nation’s agric economy.

    The statement reads in part: “Following several queries and complaints from importers, exporters and other stakeholders regarding the issue of packaging materials for shipping cargoes, it has become necessary to reiterate that NAQS is concerned with the Solid Wood Packaging Materials (SWPM), such as pallets, crates, boxes, dunnages, etc, in containerised cargoes that were imported because of their potential of serving as pathways for pests and diseases introduction that can endanger the nation’s agric economy.”

    “All importation of SWPM must be accompanied with import permit from NAQS or must have been treated, and this  is stated on the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), markings/logo according to International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM).

    “Further, all treated SWPM imported into Nigeria should carry IPPC marking or logo, stating the type of treatment administered (Methyl Bromide or Heat Treatment). Already, imported SWPM must be re-treated if they are to be reused or recycled. Importers and exporters are to take note, and contact NAQS for proper guidance.”

  • SON moves to stimulate agric export

    SON moves to stimulate agric export

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has come out with strategies aimed at stimulating export of agricultural produce from Nigeria, by ensuring that agric produce meet international standards and are not rejected by the importing country.

    As part of the strategy, which was in line with the Federal Government’s economic diversification agenda, SON, according to its Acting Director-General, Dr Paul Angya, has started developing standards for select priority produce from farm to storage, cutting across soil composition, soil preparation, kind of pesticides to use, seed improvement, harvesting, packaging, labelling and storage.

    The DG, who spoke to reporters in Lagos, said the talk about alternatives to oil was not limited to manufacturing, but extended to agriculture where Nigeria has her biggest strength.

    He, however, recalled that Nigeria recently had her beans and other agro-allied products that were exported, rejected by the European Union (EU).

    The EU banned the importation of Nigeria’s dried beans in June, last year on the ground that the produce contained high level of pesticides considered dangerous to human health. While relevant government agencies were working to get the EU lift the ban, the European body extended it by another three years, citing the continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria.

    The Nation learnt that the development was seen as a national embarrassment because of the huge loss of foreign exchange for Nigeria and poor reputation for her agricultural produce exports. This may have compelled SON to adopt strategies to avoid a repeat.  “What we have done to make our agro-allied products meet international quality has been to develop standards. First of all, we identified priority products—agric and agro-allied products for export, such as cocoa, rice, beans, melon—there are about 10 of them.

    “Then we developed standards and codes of practice for these products from farm to table, comprising soil composition, soil preparation, kind of pesticides to use, seed improvement, harvesting, packaging labeling, storage, etc; and all these we develop in terms of codes of practice, because sometimes, these products are rejected not so much because of the product quality, as in the pesticides and additives that are used and how they store  them,” the SON DG said.

    He said the codes of practice were developed to guide the producers and farmers of the selected products that are of high priority from the country so that Nigeria could deliver safe and affordable agro-allied products to the international community. This is aside strengthening capacity for laboratory testing and certification of the agric produce meant for exportation, as it is key that the products do not have issues.

    Angya explained that at present the products are tested only in the countries of export, meaning that Nigeria does not have control over the results, “because we don’t have much of the facilities for testing in Nigeria. The facilities are what we call quality infrastructure. The testing laboratories are one of the major components of the national quality infrastructure.”

    According to him, there are only two of such laboratories in Nigeria, with SON and National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) having one each for testing food products. He, however, said SON is currently developing a large laboratory complex in Ogba, Lagos, which is over 85 per cent completed.

    He said when completed, Nigeria should be able to test all standards and parametres for foods and food products, so that the facilities will become available and much of the products coming to Nigeria will have access to this testing.

    The SON boss also said as part of the strategy to boost export of agric produce, SON had conducted trainings for its members of staff in the last few months on the codes of practice and agricultural practices.

  • Nigeria seeks British support to boost agric goods export

    Nigeria seeks British support to boost agric goods export

    The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, on Friday called for British government’s support to Nigeria’s quest to boost the export of its agricultural commodities.

    This is contained in a statement issued by the Director of Information of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Alhaji Salisu Dambatta, on Friday in Abuja.

    The statement said the minister made the call when he received the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Arkwright, in his office.

    Usani said that Nigeria was now focusing on diversifying its economy by boosting the production of agricultural commodities for export to the world market.

    He, therefore, solicited for access to British agricultural expertise in order to boost the sector.

    The minister praised British government’s assistance to Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram terrorists.

    He also called for more British contribution in strengthening the oil industry regulatory agencies in order to ensure high safety and environmental protection standard.

    Earlier, Arkwiright said that he was at the ministry to discuss areas of collaboration for the development of the Niger Delta region.

    He said that Britain and Nigeria had a strong partnership that would continue to be sustained in the best interests of both countries.