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Tag: US

  • Nigerian jailed three years in US for wire fraud

    Nigerian jailed three years in US for wire fraud

    A Nigerian, Wiseman Oputa, living in Texas, United States of America, has been jailed for three years by a federal judge in Houston.

    The 25-year-old had pleaded guilty to a $1.3million wire fraud in April, using fake passports and romance schemes.

    Investigators said Oputa used counterfeit passports to open bank accounts in the Houston area. The passports had his photo but different names and identification.

    Prosecutors said he then lured online victims into sending money to those accounts.

    The scams ranged from bogus business deals and romance offers to false reports of money won and taxes needing to be paid to acquire the winnings.

    Along with restitution, Oputa also will face deportation proceedings when he leaves prison.

    The US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas, said the funds were “obtained through a variety of internet scams, including business email compromise, romance schemes and unauthorized intrusions into company email accounts. Checks or wire transfers were then sent from the company’s accounts payable to accounts Oputa or others controlled. Oputa would then use the counterfeit passports to retrieve the fraudulently obtained funds.”

    In one instance in December 2016, Oputa, the office said “opened an account at Regions Bank with a counterfeit Ghanaian passport as identification. Shortly thereafter the account received a wire transfer of $40,000 from a victim who had been told to send money for taxes on money he had won in Spain. USAA Bank identified the fraudulent and was able to recall the wire.”

    U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett accepted the guilty plea and has set sentencing for July 6, 2017. At that time, Oputa faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine. He will remain in custody pending that hearing.

  • Why US, others reject Nigeria’s yam

    The Federal Government’s plan to boost non-oil exports suffered a major setback, following the rejection by American consumers of large quantities of yam exported to the US.

    The rejection was due to poor transportation facilities,  the Consultant to  USAID/Nigeria, NEXTT Project,  Aderemi Osijo, has said.

    He said biodegradation of perishable foods takes place naturally unless strategies are adopted to prevent, or delay this process, adding that yam need to be placed in controlled-atmosphere.

    Osijo, who is the Managing Director, RBS Consulting Limited, said perishable food should be held at temperatures at which significant biodegradation could not take place.

    According to him, when product temperature rises above the threshold for carriage, the risk of bio deterioration becomes greater, and bio deterioration can begin, with eventual detectable effects.

    According to him, the yams may have spent a long time on the road and at the container terminal which eventually affected the quality of the cargo.

    He explained that transporting  yams  entails expensive logistical operations, transport and customs clearance expenses that  represent  a significant  cost of their exports.

    To protect the food, the packaging has to be suitable for the purpose, the duration and the complexity of the storage and journey.  He said if the government and the industry were serious about boosting agro exports, they needed to pay greater attention to the role of transportation and logistics to mitigate the impact of climate change on cargo met for exports.

    Nigeria, on June 29, began the  exportation of yams to Europe and the U.S as part of moves to diversify her oil-dependent economy and earn foreign exchange.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh kicked off the first consignment of the commodity from the Apapa port, Lagos. Following the rejection, the  minister, said  President Muhammadu Buhari has mandated  his ministry to carry out the investigation.

    He said: “I have been mandated to brief on one or two developments in the agricultural sector. One is a new development about the consignment of yams, which was exported from here to the US, which, according to report we heard today, was found to be of poor quality.

    “The ministry will investigate because the ministry is not an exporter; exporters are private sector people. We will investigate both the company that exported it and asked our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here.’’

    On the assertion that the export of the consignment of yam was done in violation of the Export Prohibition Bill, Ogbeh said the National Assembly would soon repeal the law.

    According to the minister, there is a bill before the National Assembly to repeal the law. “It’s a 1989 law. It was passed in the belief that is only by preventing export that you can make food more available. We have a different philosophy – grow more food. So, the law will be repealed,’’ he said.

  • Buhari, Shettima, Gamduje, Tambuwal meet before US trip

    Buhari, Shettima, Gamduje, Tambuwal meet before US trip

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday met behind closed doors with the governors of Borno (Kashim Shettima), Kano (Abdullahi Ganduje) and Sokoto states (Aminu Tambuwal) in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, before departing for New York, USA.

    Malam Imam Imam, the Special Adviser to the Sokoto State governor on Media, confirmed the meeting of the governors with the President on his Facebook page, on Sunday.

    Mr Femi Adesina, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity also confirmed the departure of President Buhari to New York, through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja

    Adesina posted on his Facebook page: “President Buhari departs Abuja to New York for 72nd Session of the United Nation General Assembly on Sept. 17, 2017.’’

    It was gathered that the President might have been briefed by the governors on some national issues including the security situations in their respective states.

    Shettima, who is also the chairman of the Northern State governors’ forum, had in a statement issued in Maiduguri, lauded the residents of the region for keeping the peace in the face of the recent clashes between members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and soldiers in some parts of the South East region.

    While IPOB has been proscribed by the south east governors, it was declared as a terrorist group by the military.

    Sokoto metropolis, on Saturday, however witnessed minor social unrest as some armed youths in their hundreds, set ablaze a building along Bello Way where Igbo traders have shops in what appeared to be a response to reported attacks on some northern traders in some parts of the South East region.

    But the 19 Northern state governors, had through a statement issued by its chairman, Kashim Shettima, called on the army to remain on the alert in the region with a view to tackling any possible break down of law and order in the states.

    President Buhari, after the meeting with governors, left Abuja for New York to join other world leaders at the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 72), would during the visit, participate in the General Debate where he was expected to deliver the country’s National Statement.

    The theme for this year’s Debate is: “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.”

    Buhari would also join other world leaders at the welcoming reception to be hosted by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

    The Nigerian leader would also hold a bilateral meeting with the UN scribe as well as a lunch meeting with President Donald Trump of the United States of America, along with other world leaders.

    The president, who was accompanied by the governors of Zamfara, Ebonyi and Ondo States as well as key cabinet ministers, would transit through London on his way back to the country.

  • ‘Nigeria’s capital controls deter US firms from investing’

    • Free-floating naira advisable

    U.S. companies are skeptical about increasing  their investments in Nigeria due to capital controls, the Head of a Congressional delegation on a visit to the country, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, has said.

    Coons said: “Some of the currency controls that remain, I think raise the question of whether foreign direct investment, if successful and profitable, will be able to be returned to any country.

    “I have heard concerns from American companies that before they significantly increase their investment here, they would hope they return to a floating currency.”

    Nigeria, the continent’s biggest oil producer, tightened currency restrictions after the 2014 crash in crude prices, a move analysts blamed for creating a severe shortage of foreign exchange that made it difficult for companies to pay for imports and repatriate profits. While the scarcity has eased this year, the central bank still tightly manages the naira.

    The U.S. is Nigeria’s third-biggest trading partner after India and China, with volume between the two reaching $6.8 billion in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That was down from $12 billion in 2014. The stock of U.S. foreign direct investment in Nigeria was $5.5 billion in 2015, according to the State Department. Most of that was in oil and gas.

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has taken other steps to make Nigeria more attractive to investors, he said. “The Buhari administration has made significant progress in addressing some of the structural challenges, both security and economic challenges, that were a barrier to more active American investment,” he said.

    Coons, a Democrat, visited Nigeria with seven other senators. In Lagos, they met business leaders including Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, Tony Elumelu, chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc and investment company Heirs Holdings Limited, and Tonye Cole, Director and Co-founder, Sahara Group, owners of Nigeria’s biggest power generating plant – Egbin Power Plc.

    The US lawmarkers also met Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and visited Maiduguri, the epicenter of an eight-year insurgency by the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram that has devastated the north-eastern state of Borno. There, they spoke with U.S. military advisers and Nigerian commanders, who asked for more armored vehicles known as MRAPs.

    “These were reasonable, achievable partnerships requests that I thought were doable,” Coons said. “It was important for us to get an assessment on the ground. It was a voluminous list of the structural damage done over years of fighting Boko Haram.”

    At the Egbin Power plant in Lagos, Coons and his team listened to the presentation of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Dallas Peavey, on the challenges, achievements and future plans of the management for the power plant. He promised that back home in the U.S., they will discuss and see how to help Egbin management and Nigerian government to achieve their power sufficiency goals.

  • Trump and the decline of the US

    When Donald Trump threw his hat into the ring for the Republican nomination, most Americans did not think he was a serious contender. There were others in the field with government experience either as governors or senators. Trump has no such experience. He was just a brash New Yorker with lots of money and television experience as host to a programme famous for his firing people. His critics even dispute how much money he has. He claimed to be a billionaire but his financial history is characterized by bankruptcies. In one of his businesses, he was awarding degrees in business without a university building or academic staff. The only thing he had was his braggadocio about how he could make people billionaires like himself after payment of appropriate fees. Many people were sucked into his scheme and when he was sued for fraud, he quickly gave their money back settling the cases out of the glare of the judicial system. He built many estates here and there and quietly banned blacks from owning any of his flats or apartment buildings. He also merely lent his notorious name to buildings all over the world, thus there were Trump Towers across the world. He also had casinos in Jersey and Las Vegas which closed down one after the other after fulfilling their money hacking purposes. He also ran the Miss World or Miss Universe pageants during which time he allegedly groped the girls.

    Now how can such a man be elected  president in the most advanced democracy and the most technologically advanced country in the world?  Under normal circumstances, he should not be elected dog catcher! He overwhelmed his Republican contenders by insults, bullying and  he reduced decent debates to exchange of insults and raw language. When he faced Hilary Clinton, he exploited Mrs Clinton’s secretive nature to say she has something to hide. Mrs Clinton’s long service and experience in government also proved her undoing during the election. Her use of private server for government e-mails did her incalculable damage. The shady and buccaneering way the Clinton Foundation was raising money sometimes using the facilities of the State Department to raise questionable donations was said by Trump to have amounted “to pay for play”. Incredibly, a man of Trump’s sexually explosive background was not ashamed to say former President Bill Clinton’s sexual peccadilloes disqualified his wife for the presidency and suggested Mrs Clinton bullied those women who were victims of her husband ‘s philandering and  that she prevented them from seeking justice.

    There were many  other reasons responsible for the rise of Trump chief among which was the loss of opportunities by blue collar white workers who lost out to workers in other parts of the world due to globalization. This sector of the American population who numbered about 40 percent of the population felt increasingly left out of the so-called American Dream because of its poor education vis-à-vis college educated young Americans.

    I remember discussing the prognosis of Mrs Clinton winning the election in November 2016 with Ambassador Akporode Clark and the wise analysis by this experienced retired ambassador telling me the Americans will not elect a woman after “enduring a black” for eight years. The analysis was right on the spot and has been proved right. This analysis has gained so much traction that President Barack Obama has had to deny being responsible for Trump’s election laying the blame at the door of the Republicans who for eight years had peddled the rumor that he was not born in America and was therefore not qualified to run for the exalted office of president and some of them had been responsible for the gridlock in Washington. Throughout the Obama years, Trump also represented the arrow-head of white American nationalism that felt threatened by Blacks, Latinos, Jews, Asians and by the youth and women coalition that was responsible for electing a black president twice for a period of eight years. Even Jeb Bush while campaigning for the Republican ticket said this much when he said he was the only white Republican who could defeat the strong Democratic coalition.

    Whatever was responsible for Trump’s election, it should be pointed out that while  he won the majority of the votes in the electoral college, Mrs Clinton won the plurality of the votes by about three million votes. But American system is the only one that does not reflect majority votes  but rather takes the election state by state as if it was different elections in American 52 states and territories.

    Now Trump has been president for the past seven and a half months and he has broken all known rules in American  democratic culture. He has packed his cabinet with retired Generals and right wing peoples spewing all kinds of largely unacceptable political messages that most civilized Americans find troubling. Because of general press opposition to his government, many of his appointees have had to resign because they were found to be unworthy of holding high offices of responsibility. His popularity has hung around 35 percent, the lowest in recent American history. Trump’s administration has suffered a high level of attrition in the revolving doors of coming in and going out of people in the White House. The government also suffers from accusations of nepotism with Trump’s son-in-law and daughter wielding unusual influence in government. Trump also has in residence one Steve Bannon who until recently before he too left a sinking ship served as some kind of Rasputin in the Trump court advising the president to follow a right wing trajectory not seen in American politics since Dwight Eisenhower.

    The president has alienated his neighbours in Canada and Mexico by abandoning North Atlantic Free Trade Area which bound the economies of the USA, Canada and Mexico, creating one of the biggest free trade areas in the world from which the three economies have ostensibly benefited. Trump says it has hurt American working class. He has withdrawn from the Pacific trading pact that would have created the biggest trading area in the world linking the economies of the North America, some South American economies and those of Asian countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. He was also not too excited about NATO, a defensive military alliance that had guaranteed world peace since 1945. He was determined on some trade wars with Europe, China and Japan.

    The only country he seems favorably disposed to is Vladimir Putin’s Russia that has been accused fairly of illegally helping elect Trump by leaking secrets about Hilary Clinton’s e-mails. It seems however that Congress would not allow any Trump-driven rapprochement with Russia. The final point of his unworthy leadership was demonstrated at Charlottesville in the state of Virginia when a mob of  KKK( Ku Klux Klan ) a cross-burning gang of black-killing and hating people to which Trump’s father allegedly belonged, and also including neo -NAZI group and other white supremacist groups invaded the small town allegedly demonstrating against the pulling down of the statue of General Robert Lee, a treasonable confederate general during the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865. The statue and others have been in recent times, symbols of persecution of Jews and Blacks and other minorities in the United States. A counter-demonstration led to one of these people using a high speed car to kill and wound the demonstrators. Rather than condemning the white terrorists, Trump seemed to have believed that there was a moral equivalence between the terrorists and racists and those protesting to reassert American values. After waiting for nearly 72 hours, Trump came out to condemn the racists but then immediately changed the issue to be between protecting American history and statues of people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, founders of the American republic who were of course slave-holding Americans, thus reducing his own apparent failure of leadership to protecting American slave-holding national heroes like Washington and Jefferson.

    The point he does not seem to appreciate is that being heroes does not remove the fact that these people were moral delinquents and failures. We do not know where the ferment and political contradictions in America will lead the country.

    What is certain is that we are witnessing the decline of America from self-inflicted wounds leading to implosion which will definitely weaken America from within before an inevitable confrontation with the power of a rising China. This is a phenomenon which the virtual begging of China to rein in the North Koreans who are threatening to nuke America itself or to begin with, the American Pacific territory of Guam, clearly demonstrates. If American leadership under Trump knows a little bit about the reading of history predicted by the Grecian historian Thucydides of inevitable clash between a declining and a rising power, Trump should be doing everything to unite America for eventual conflict in Asia. This is of course assuming that this dangerous man understands the lessons of history.

    In the meantime, a country which prides itself as the moral and political leader of the world is being brought down by a president suffering from immense moral deficit.

  • Trump lambasts Amazon over taxes, jobs

    Trump lambasts Amazon over taxes, jobs

     US President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticised Amazon.com on Twitter over taxes and jobs and accused the global retailer, without offering evidence, of hurting US localities and causing job losses.

    Shares of the company fell 0.3 per cent to 980.00 dollars in premarket trade after Trump’s comments.Representatives of the company could not be immediately reached for comment. “Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the US are being hurt – many jobs being lost!” Trump wrote.

    Trump has repeatedly targeted Amazon.com, whose CEO Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, one ofseveral major media outlets that have been swept up in the president’s ongoing fight with the press.

    “The #Amazon WashingtonPost sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet-taxes (which they should) is FAKE-NEWS!” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter on June 28, one of the several posts critical of Amazon since late 2015.

    His tweet on Wednesday came as a reporter for the Washington Post appeared on CNN’s “New Day” programme discussing criticism of Trump’s comments in the wake of weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

    On Tuesday, Trump inflamed tensions over a deadly rally by white nationalists in the town by insisting those counter protesters were also to blame, drawing condemnation from some Republican leaders and praise from white supremacists.

    Amazon.com has said that it has more than 50,000 job openings across the United States to help fulfill customer orders and recently hosted multiple job fairs to fill them.

    The e-commerce company does collect state sales taxes in Washington, D.C., and 45 US states that have such a levy, the company said on its website.

    Still, Amazon’s growth has upended the US retail market with its rapidly expanding reach.

    Its decision in June to buy premium grocer Whole Foods has signalled its move into other sectors and has also raised some questions about jobs.

  • US gives $638m aid to Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan

    The United States yesterday announced more than $630 million in aid for Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, where conflict has triggered what the United Nations calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in more than 70 years.

    Washington said the total U.S. humanitarian assistance to the four countries is now more than $1.8 billion this fiscal year.

    While the United States is the world’s largest humanitarian donor, President Donald Trump’s proposed deep cuts to foreign aid have caused widespread concern.

    Tens of millions of people in the four beneficiary countries face hunger amid conflict.

    Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria has contributed to severe hunger in the Northeast, Yemen has the world’s largest cholera outbreak, while half of drought-hit Somalia’s 12 million people need aid.

  • Boost for non-oil sector as Nigeria exports yam to US, UK, others

    Boost for non-oil sector as Nigeria exports yam to US, UK, others

    Nigeria plans to export 72 metric tonnes of yam to Europe and the United States (US). It is targeting a yearly revenue of $8 billion from the export. This is seen as a boost for non-oil export, which will help in diversifying the economy. But, there are fears about quality and standards, which caused the rejection of Nigeria’s agro-allied products in Europe and the US. Can these fears be addressed? Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA asks.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Audu Ogbeh is upbeat. Under him, Nigeria’s push to build a robust export-based economy appears to have started.

    Barring last-minute hitches, Nigeria will, this week, export 72 metric tonnes of yam to Europe and the United States (US). The shipment, according to Ogbeh, will be in three containers of 24 metric tonnes each; one container will go to the United Kingdom (UK); the rest, US.

    Ahead of the planned shipment, the Minister has announced that the Federal Government targets about $8 billion annually from yam export.

    Ogbeh, who made this known when he received the Technical Committee on Nigeria Yam Export Programme in Abuja, said yesterday’s launch of the programme would enable the country earn foreign exchange from agric produce to substitute the oil and gas sector.

    The Nigerian Yam Export Programme is a private sector initiative aimed at taking yam processing to the next level. It was inaugurated in February this year. Its Technical Committee was made up of representatives from the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), among others.

    The Committee’s mandate was to sensitise farmers and exporters on the required international standards for yam before export, and facilitate acquisition of warehouses at the receiving destinations, among others.

    The Yam Export Programme, The Nation learnt, became necessary because of Nigeria’s comparative advantage in yam production. Ogbeh put it in perspective when he said despite accounting for over 60 per cent of global yam production, “people do not know that we grow yam”.

    While admitting that Ghana’s projection on yam export was impressive, the Minister expressed optimism that Nigeria can quadruple Ghana’s. “We should keep pushing to become number one in yam export,” he said.

    As part of strategies to surpass Ghana in yam export to Europe and other continents, Ogbeh tasked the NAQS on reducing the inspection charges, pointing out that it will make the country competitive in the export market. He also tasked the Technical Committee on Yam Export on mechanised heap making to work for the design of a plough that can make yam heaps.

    Ogheh, who pledged that government will work on the packaging and use of the right type of trucks for transportation of yam, also assured yam exporters of government’s support, assuring that government will refund everything they spent on the venture.

    The Committee Chairman, Prof Simon Irtwange, said the committee was working with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to train farmers and improve some yam varieties.

    While stating that the committee had prepared a four-year action plan for the yam value chain programme in the country, he solicited better funding for the committee.

    “We have standards that we are following and they have to do with pytho-sanitary requirements to meet international standards. We have combined the standards of Ghana and Nigeria to make sure our yams are not rejected at the international market,” Irtwange said.

     

    Why govt, operators are excited

    It is easy to see why the Minister and indeed, operators in the non-oil export business are excited over Nigeria’s prospects of reclaiming her prime position in yam export. For one, the cheery news came at a time the nation was losing the US’s patronage of its crude oil, forcing her to focus on agric produce to penetrate the US market.

    Most importantly, the development came after a barrage of import ban on Nigeria’s agro-allied products into the EU and US markets over quality and standard-related issues, which left the authorities and Nigerians thoroughly embarrassed. It also dealt severe blows to Nigeria’s push to boost non-oil export and facilitate economic diversification.

    For instance, last year alone, the EU rejected 24 exported food products from Nigeria for not meeting standards. Some of the food items denied entry, according to the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), included groundnut, palm oil, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish, meat and beans.

    NAFDAC spokesperson, Dr. Abubakar Jimoh explained that information made available to the agency showed that groundnut was rejected because it contained aflatoxin, which made the quality substandard.

    He said the exported palm oil, on the other hand, did not scale through the EU’s test because it also contained a colouring agent that was carcinogenic. Jimoh also said Nigeria’s beans were banned by the EU sometime ago, but they were illegally exported to European countries.

    The EU had in June 2015 banned the importation of Nigeria’s dried beans on grounds that it contained high level of pesticides considered dangerous to human health. 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. Apparently embarrassed by the development, the relevant government agencies said they were working to get the EU lift the ban. But as it turned out, the European body was not impressed by measures taking by Nigeria to resolve the issue.

    Accordingly, the EU extended the ban by another three years, citing the continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria.

    “The continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria and maximum residue levels of pesticides shows that compliance with food law requirement as regards pesticide residual cannot be achieved in the short term.

    “The duration of the importation prohibition should therefore, be extended for an additional period of three years to allow Nigeria implement the appropriate risk-management measure and provide required guarantees,” the EU said.

    The extension of the ban is expected to expire next year, with Jimoh noting that NAFDAC and other regulatory agencies are working round the clock to ensure that when the ban is lifted, “we can then begin to export more agricultural products to the EU”.

     

    Cocoa also banned

    While Nigeria was still rattled by the extension of the ban on beans, the US added to her woes by banning the importation of Nigeria’s cocoa into its market. The US authorities were said to have taken the action because Nigeria’s cocoa did not satisfy the standard required for exportation into the US.

    These were major setbacks for Nigeria currently struggling to boost non-oil export and diversify her economy severely battered by the crashing oil prices. The situation was more worrisome, especially considering the fact that international attention was shifting to Ghana’s and Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa.

     

    Quality, standards take center stage

    Although, experts and industry operators say Nigeria’s plan to export yam was an indication that the nations’ drive for a non-oil economy was on course, they noted that sustaining the current tempo required addressing the fundamental issues of quality and standards that cause Nigeria’s exports rejection in the first instance.

    Some of them, who spoke with The Nation, specifically said apart from the need to put in place functional laboratories for testing and certifying products before export, synergy amongst standards regulatory agencies was imperative.

    Founder, Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mr. Robo Adhuze, observed that lack of seriousness by the Federal Produce Inspection Service (FPIS), the agency responsible for checking and certifying agro-allied products leaving the country, was robbing Nigeria the benefits of a vibrant non-oil export-based economy.

    “Quality standards have moved from physical standards to biological standards, but FPIS appears not be up to speed with this reality,”he said, recalling that Ghana suffered the same fate about five years ago  when over 2, 000 metric tonnes of her cocoa beans were rejected by Japan.

    He said the Chocolate and Cocoa Association of Japan appealed to Ghanaian authorities to take immediate steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in cocoa beans exported to the Asian country.

    He said Ghana’s standards regulatory authorities rose to the challenge by putting in place appropriate and adequate measures to guarantee the quality of her cocoa products for export.

    Adhuze expressed disappointment that while Ghana’s standards regulatory authorities took steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in their cocoa beans, Nigeria was unable to do so, resulting in the harvest of import ban that threatened the non-oil sector, especially agro-allied products.

    The expert also pointed out that Nigeria’s lack of seriousness is underscored by the fact that despite exporting cocoa for over 100 years, the country has no defined cocoa policy to identify the basic links in the cocoa value chain.

    According to him, there was need for a policy on cocoa farming with appropriate institutional framework to boost its production through proper identification of all the actors, who have stake in the industry, from farmers to processors, marketers and exporters, among others.

    Agencies move to halt export rejections

    As part of efforts to sustain the current tempo, NAFDAC has urged exporters to subject their products to its standard and internationally accredited laboratories for proper certification.

    Screening and certification of any product for export by NAFDAC, he said, was free of charge in spite of facilities, personnel and chemical reagents being used to conduct such tests.

    “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 product certification of NAFDAC.

    “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,’’ Jimoh said.

    He lamented that the exporters action has put the country’s image in bad light and caused a huge loss to exporters themselves, which negatively impacted the economy.

    According to him, NAFDAC had six functional laboratories across the country, which conduct various types of products tests.

    NAQS Co-ordinating Director, Dr. Vincent Iseghe, on his part,  has called for effective collaboration amongst export processing agencies to ensure efficient, result oriented and 100 per cent acceptance of Nigerian produce at the global markets.

    Similarly, the Agro-Allied Group of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has called for stricter issuance of phytosanitary certificates for export-bound agricultural produce.

    Speaking in Lagos, its Chairman, Mr. Tunji Falade, canvassed intensified collaboration between export regulatory agencies, organisations, exporters and farmers, adding that the rejection of the commodities by the EU should not be seen as victimisation, but an opportunity to reposition Nigeria’s export system. “What we should be trying to do now is to ensure that we get this export issue right, in terms of all the standards involved,” he said.

    Right now, we have some agencies that are supposed to be involved in the regulation of this process. Apart from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), we have NAQS

    “All of these organisations and agencies really need to collaborate with exporters, farmers, agronomists and stakeholders to ensure that before the products leave the country, all the standards are met. The issuing of phytosanitary certificates to export-bound agricultural produce should be very strict,’’ Falade said.

  • Fatai Owoseni’s daughter holds classy wedding in US

    Fatai Owoseni’s daughter holds classy wedding in US

    Aminat, the beautiful daughter of Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, recently exchanged marital vows with her heartthrob, Abayomi Apooyin, in far-away Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Interestingly, Aminat’s new husband is a police officer like her father. The wedding was a classy and expensive affair witnessed by numerous dignitaries flown in from Nigeria and elsewhere to lend colour to the occasion.

    The bride’s father left no stone unturned in giving his daughter a befitting wedding. Earlier last month, Aminat and her beau had their traditional wedding in Lagos, which was the talk of the town. The high-class affair had in attendance no less a dignitary than the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, among other prominent sons and daughters of the land.

  • Boost for non-oil sector as Nigeria exports Yam to US, UK others

    Boost for non-oil sector as Nigeria exports Yam to US, UK others

    Nigeria plans to export 72 metric tonnes of Yam to Europe and the United States (US) this week. It is targeting a yearly revenue of $8 billion from the export. This is seen as boost for non-oil export which is aimed at diversifying the economy. But, there are fears about quality and standards, which caused the rejection of Nigeria’s agro-allied products in Europe and the US. Can these fears be addressed? Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA writes.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh is upbeat. Under him, Nigeria’s push to build a robust export-based economy appears to have started.

    Barring any last minute hitches, Nigeria will, this week, export 72 metric tonnes of yam to Europe and the United States (US). The shipment, according to Ogbeh, will be in three containers of 24 metric tonnes each; one container will go to the United Kingdom (UK) the rest, US.

    Ahead of the planned shipment, the Minister has announced that the Federal Government targets about $8 billion in foreign exchange annually from yam export to other countries.

    Ogbeh, who made this known when he received the Technical Committee on Nigeria Yam Export Programme in Abuja, said yesterday’s launch of the programme would enable the country earn foreign exchange from agric produce to substitute the oil and gas sector.

    The Nigerian Yam Export Programme is a private sector initiative aimed at taking yam processing to the next level. It was inaugurated in February this year. Its Technical Committee was made up of representatives from the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), among others.

    The Committee’s mandate was to sensitise farmers and exporters on the required international standards for yam before export, and facilitate acquisition of warehouses at the receiving destinations, among others.

    The Yam Export Programme, The Nation learnt, became necessary because of Nigeria’s comparative advantage in yam production. Ogbeh put it in perspective when he said despite accounting for over 60 per cent of global yam production, “people do not know that we grow yam”.

    While admitting that Ghana’s projection on yam export was impressive, the Minister expressed optimism that Nigeria can quadruple Ghana’s. “We should keep pushing to become number one in yam export,” he said.

    As part of strategies to surpass Ghana in yam export to Europe and other continents, Ogbeh tasked the NAQS on reducing the inspection charges, pointing out that it will make the country competitive in the export market. He also tasked the Technical Committee on Yam Export on mechanised heap making to work for the design of a plough that can make yam heaps.

    Ogheh, who pledged that government will work on the packaging and use of the right type of trucks for transportation of yam, also assured yam exporters of government’s support, assuring that government will refund everything they spent on the venture.

    The Committee Chairman, Prof Simon Irtwange, said the committee was working with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to train farmers and improve some yam varieties.

    While stating that the committee had prepared a four-year action plan for the yam value chain programme in the country, he solicited better funding for the committee.

    “We have standards that we are following and they have to do with pytho-sanitary requirements to meet international standards. We have combined the standards of Ghana and Nigeria to make sure our yams are not rejected at the international market,” Irtwange said.

     

    Why govt, operators

    are excited

    It is easy to see why the Minister and indeed, operators in the non-oil export business are excited over Nigeria’s prospects of reclaiming her prime position in yam export. For one, the cheery news came at a time the nation was losing the US’s patronage of its crude oil, forcing her to focus on agric produce to penetrate the US market.

    Most importantly, the development came after a barrage of import ban on Nigeria’s agro-allied products into the EU and US markets over quality and standard-related issues, which left the authorities and Nigerians thoroughly embarrassed. It also dealt severe blows to Nigeria’s push to boost non-oil export and facilitate economic diversification.

    For instance, last year alone, the EU rejected 24 exported food products from Nigeria for not meeting standards. Some of the food items denied entry, according to the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), included groundnut, palm oil, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish, meat and beans.

    NAFDAC spokesperson, Dr. Abubakar Jimoh explained that information made available to the agency showed that groundnut was rejected because it contained aflatoxin, which made the quality substandard.

    He said the exported palm oil, on the other hand, did not scale through the EU’s test because it also contained a colouring agent that was carcinogenic. Jimoh also said Nigeria’s beans were banned by the EU sometime ago, but they were illegally exported to European countries.

    The EU had in June 2015 banned the importation of Nigeria’s dried beans on grounds that it contained high level of pesticides considered dangerous to human health. 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. Apparently embarrassed by the development, the relevant government agencies said they were working to get the EU lift the ban. But as it turned out, the European body was not impressed by measures taking by Nigeria to resolve the issue.

    Accordingly, the EU extended the ban by another three years, citing the continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria.

    “The continued presence of dichlorvos (pesticide) in dried beans imported from Nigeria and maximum residue levels of pesticides shows that compliance with food law requirement as regards pesticide residual cannot be achieved in the short term.

    “The duration of the importation prohibition should therefore, be extended for an additional period of three years to allow Nigeria implement the appropriate risk-management measure and provide required guarantees,” the EU said.

    The extension of the ban is expected to expire next year, with Jimoh noting that NAFDAC and other regulatory agencies are working round the clock to ensure that when the ban is lifted, “we can then begin to export more agricultural products to the EU”.

     

    Cocoa also banned

    While Nigeria was still rattled by the extension of the ban on beans, the US added to her woes by banning the importation of Nigeria’s cocoa into its market. The US authorities were said to have taken the action because Nigeria’s cocoa did not satisfy the standard required for exportation into the US.

    These were major setbacks for Nigeria currently struggling to boost non-oil export and diversify her economy severely battered by the crashing oil prices. The situation was more worrisome, especially considering the fact that international attention was shifting to Ghana’s and Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa.

     

    Quality, standards take

    center stage

    Although, experts and industry operators say Nigeria’s plan to export yam was an indication that the nations’ drive for a non-oil economy was on course, they noted that sustaining the current tempo required addressing the fundamental issues of quality and standards that cause Nigeria’s exports rejection in the first instance.

    Some of them, who spoke with The Nation, specifically said apart from the need to put in place functional laboratories for testing and certifying products before export, synergy amongst standards regulatory agencies was imperative.

    Founder, Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mr. Robo Adhuze, observed that lack of seriousness by the Federal Produce Inspection Service (FPIS), the agency responsible for checking and certifying agro-allied products leaving the country, was robbing Nigeria the benefits of a vibrant non-oil export-based economy.

    “Quality standards have moved from physical standards to biological standards, but FPIS appears not be up to speed with this reality,”he said, recalling that Ghana suffered the same fate about five years ago  when over 2, 000 metric tonnes of her cocoa beans were rejected by Japan.

    He said the Chocolate and Cocoa Association of Japan appealed to Ghanaian authorities to take immediate steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in cocoa beans exported to the Asian country.

    He said Ghana’s standards regulatory authorities rose to the challenge by putting in place appropriate and adequate measures to guarantee the quality of her cocoa products for export.

    Adhuze expressed disappointment that while Ghana’s standards regulatory authorities took steps to reverse the excessive agro-chemical residues found in their cocoa beans, Nigeria was unable to do so, resulting in the harvest of import ban that threatened the non-oil sector, especially agro-allied products.

    The expert also pointed out that Nigeria’s lack of seriousness is underscored by the fact that despite exporting cocoa for over 100 years, the country has no defined cocoa policy to identify the basic links in the cocoa value chain.

    According to him, there was need for a policy on cocoa farming with appropriate institutional framework to boost its production through proper identification of all the actors, who have stake in the industry, from farmers to processors, marketers and exporters, among others.

    Agencies move to halt export rejections

    As part of efforts to sustain the current tempo, NAFDAC has urged exporters to subject their products to its standard and internationally accredited laboratories for proper certification.

    Screening and certification of any product for export by NAFDAC, he said, was free of charge in spite of facilities, personnel and chemical reagents being used to conduct such tests.

    “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 product certification of NAFDAC.

    “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,’’ Jimoh said.

    He lamented that the exporters action has put the country’s image in bad light and caused a huge loss to exporters themselves, which negatively impacted the economy.

    According to him, NAFDAC had six functional laboratories across the country, which conduct various types of products tests.

    NAQS Co-ordinating Director, Dr. Vincent Iseghe, on his part,  has called for effective collaboration amongst export processing agencies to ensure efficient, result oriented and 100 per cent acceptance of Nigerian produce at the global markets.

    Similarly, the Agro-Allied Group of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has called for stricter issuance of phytosanitary certificates for export-bound agricultural produce.

    Speaking in Lagos, its Chairman, Mr. Tunji Falade, canvassed intensified collaboration between export regulatory agencies, organisations, exporters and farmers, adding that the rejection of the commodities by the EU should not be seen as victimisation, but an opportunity to reposition Nigeria’s export system. “What we should be trying to do now is to ensure that we get this export issue right, in terms of all the standards involved,” he said.

    Right now, we have some agencies that are supposed to be involved in the regulation of this process. Apart from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), we have NAQS

    “All of these organisations and agencies really need to collaborate with exporters, farmers, agronomists and stakeholders to ensure that before the products leave the country, all the standards are met. The issuing of phytosanitary certificates to export-bound agricultural produce should be very strict,’’ Falade said.