Nigeria loses N350million to Shea smuggling annually

It has been discovered that about N350 billion is being lost to smuggling of Shea products from Nigeria every year due to the non-existence of proper structure for the Shea value chain in Nigeria.

Segun Awolowo, executive director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has revealed that nearly N345 billion is lost in the smuggling of Shea products out of the country. According to a release by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) project, Awolowo made this statement at the Shea Conference in Abuja.

The two-day conference which had the theme, Shea Conference: A Concerted Renaissance was organised by USAID/NEXTT in collaboration with Shea Origin and the National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPAN).

Noting that the global demand for Shea butter is worth about $10billion and is projected to be worth about $30billion by 2020, the NEPC boss called for increased proactive measures of repositioning the non-oil export sector in the country with agricultural products, such as Shea, with which Nigeria’s GDP is expected to surge.

“This adds value to the country’s socio-economic space in the form of inclusive and sustainable growth and wealth creation” he said, adding that “becoming a competitive global player in Shea production is one key step in Nigeria’s push to industrialise, lifting millions out of poverty and brining the country closer to realizing its full economic potential.”

In addition to the traditional uses of Shea such as cosmetics, soap, moisturizer, oil, wax, ointments and candles, Shea butter is now commonly used in the production of cocoa butter equivalents or improvers and up to five percent content by weight is allowed under EU regulations in chocolate, other confectionaries and margarine, creating even larger international markets for Shea products.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Nigeria is the world largest producer of Shea nut, producing 325,000mt in 2010 with the wildly grown Shea trees predominant in 21 states across the country.

Lamenting the failure to harness this nature endowed advantage; Awolowo noted issues of quality control with Shea processing in Nigeria must be standardised. “Although there are approximately 16 Shea producing states in Nigeria, problems arising from quality control meant we were unable to convert our comparative advantage to competitive advantage in the global arena.

Yet the strong sector development can lead to poverty reduction, women empowerment, employment generation through the establishment of small and medium scale industries and the earning of precious foreign exchange,” Awolowo stated.

Awolowo however revealed that Sheabutter is one of the products that has been selected for the NEPC One-State-One-Product (OSOP) initiative which seeks to “develop one exportable product per state by leveraging on the area’s comparative advantage.”

He also adds that Sheabutter will feature prominently as one of the products for the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) initiative by the US government which allows import of agricultural commodities from Africa to the US, duty free as well as the Nigeria Diaspora Export Programme (NDEX), which seeks to take advantage of Nigerians in the Diaspora by leveraging on their population.

Declaring the conference open, DolapoOsinbajo, wife of Nigeria’s vice – president, noted that “Shea butter industry would be able to achieve and eradicate extreme hunger, universal primary education, promote gender equality, and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS and malaria, and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development.”

Also speaking at the conference, Aminu Takuma, executive secretary of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) who was represented by a director at NIPC stated that “NIPC will be partnering with the USAID|NIGERIA NEXTT project and Technoserve to facilitate investments in Shea Clusters with necessary processing facilities in states where Shea trees are predominant.” The Shea clusters are to be spread across the 19 states where the Shea trees are predominant.

Affirming the investment opportunities in Nigeria for the Shea industry with growing international demand, the President of NASPAN; Saidu Ali noted that “there are currently six massive processing plants for Shea butter in Ghana while there is none in Nigeria.”