By Stephen Ubanna
For years , past and present Management of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, and the Nigerian Exports Promotion Council, NEPC, under the close watch of Mrs. Nonye Ayeni, could eat their chest that they had handled the export of millions of tons of Litum ore, manganese ore, cashew nuts , Shea nuts, cocoa butter, cocoa beans,sSesame seeds and rubber to the North American country of the United States, United Kingdom, Netherland, France, Spain, Germany, China and other trading partners across the global economy in worth billions of naira.
Given the huge export of such non -oil products handled by the various Customs Formations and NEPC, at the nation’s sea[pots and Land border Areas may have informed why Hameed Ali, a retired Army Colonel and then Comptroller General of the NCS, resuscitated the once- moribund Lilipond terminal now designated for export cargo in 2022.
The existence of the Lilipond export Command, has not stopped stopped the Lagos ports of Apapa, Tin Can Island and the south eastern port of Onne, Rivers state, the Rivers port , under the jurisdictions of Port Harcourt Area I, Command, Sokoto/amfara and Katsina Commands including Kebbi and Seme from handling export cargoes.
Between January and February, 2024, for instance, Comppt. Timi Bomodi, Area Controller, Seme Command, the busiest Land border station in the African Continent had said that’’ the Command handled 65 metric tons of cargo exports, and collected over N1.1 billion from such exports which was said to have been into the Federation Account .
The question on the lips of most people: what was the quality standard of the products being exported from Nigeria to its trading partners across the globe. Although before any export cargo was allowed to eave the nation’s seaports or Lad border areas to the oversea Customers, the exporters were made to produce exporter’s certificate obtained from NEPC, export contact document, Quality Assurance documents, Commercial documents, financial documents and Good Movements documents to ascertain the quality of the product that it met international standard..
Despite sighting these documents by Customs and other relevant government agencies personnel at the nation’s seaports and Land border Aras to allow such commodities to pass the ports and border areas, without any hinderance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration and now Director General, World Trade Organisation, WTO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, may have shocked Nigerians with her recent remarks in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
The WTO Director General had said that the shea nut exports and other Agricultural Commodities exported from Nigeria, Benin Republic, Burkina Faoso, Coted’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo, to name but a few, could not compete with the exports from the US, UK, France, Germany , and the Asian countries of China, Japan or South Korea.
The former Nigerian minister of Finance who was said to have taken advantage of the Shea Annual Conference in FCT, Nigeria, to speak out had said that for African Leaders to look at the shea value chain beyond farming and processing for butter , the licensed exporters must ensure that the quality of their products meet international standard.
The WTO, Director General, who could not hide her feelings had revealed that she had used her position since she assumed duties in 2021, in assisting Nigerian and the other African countries Shea exporters particular, so that the products would positively impact on the economy of the African countries.
Her worry was that the African countries produced shea for export do not meet ‘’the sanitary and phytosanitary measures required in the international market’’, noting that this has hindered many African countries from being unable to export.
Appealing to the African exporters who has been granted License by their respective countries export promotion Councils, the WTO, Director General, would want them to improve the quality of their exports, to be able to compete with the oversea exporters.
According to the former Nigerian minister of Finance, the Shea butter market which is currently valued at about at about $600 million US, dollars is expected to hit the $850 million bracket because of the high demand for the product by 2027. She would want the African women who are mostly involved in the business to benefit from the trade and not to completely lose out to the foreign exporters of the product in the international Commodities market.
The WTO boss had alluded to the meeting with the Leadership of Shea cooperatives in Oyo state, south west Nigeria, in an event organized by the NEPC, which was said to have paved the way for NEPC and the International Trade Centre to work together to rebuild the capacity of the cooperative society to produce high quality Shea butter that was to have net international safety and quality standards.
She had remarked that the Oyo Shea Cooperative Society which had once been prevented from exporting its product because of low quality standard but with the work done by all the relevant agencies , the members have received the international Certification which now allows them to export to the US, UK, Middle East and South Africa with ease.
Ayeni, the Chief Executive officer, CEO, of NEPC, had said that the agency has every reason to improve on the quality of the Shea products produced Nigeria because the country is a major producer of the Shea commodity globally.
Taking a cursory look at the global value of Shea production and export in 2023, alone, he had asserted that the production and value of the product along the value chain in the international market was US, $2.1 billion, stressing that it is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 7.1% by 2030, representing the sum of about US, $6 billion.
He had said that the global market share for chocolate from she product alone, was about $13.6 of the US , dollars in 2021 and expected to hit the US $156.4 billion in 2030. He noted that Asian countries like India, Japan and South Korea, are already improving the use of Shea butter as cocoa butter equivalent, Leading importers of Shea butter before pushing the product into the international Markets.
There is no gain saying the fact that in a bid to make Nigerian export Commodities competitive in the global market, the NEPC, Authorities had developed facilities such as the Export Development Fund and Export Expansion Grant to help generate global market , train, involve in export trade fair participation support, financial and logistics support as well as improve on the country’s export volumes and the global representatives of the country’s products.
