Nigeria Can Earn N3.8 Billion From Shea Export – Experts

Experts have said that shea export has the capacity to fetch Nigeria N3.8bn in foreign exchange earnings.

This was the conclusion at a recently held shea conference in Abuja attended by stakeholders including the Bank of Industry, Shea Origin, National Shea Product Association of Nigeria and the United States Agency for International Development.

According to a statement from the organisers, the conference with the theme “Shea sector development in Nigeria – a concerted renaissance,” was organised to emphasise the significant role of Shea in agribusiness.

The statement added that a wide range of stakeholders from the Shea industry deliberated on the topic of standardising and developing the Nigeria’s shea value chain as a critical arm of the nation’s non-oil export during the two-day conference.

It indicated that the conference was a response to a recent assertion from the Global Shea Alliance (a multi-stakeholder association in the shea industry) that Nigeria’s estimated yearly loss to smuggling of exportable shea produce to the global market was about $2.2bn (N345bn).

The statement quoted the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Shea Origin and the Vice-President of NASPAN, Mrs. Mobola Sagoe, as saying, “This enormous loss to smuggling is undermining efforts to translate benefits of shea production to a national advantage; hence the need to standardise this arm of Nigeria’s non-oil export, which can have tremendous impact on the economy and lives of rural women that are involved in shea production.”

The discussion was said to have focused on the standardisation; the $2m USAID/Nigeria Project Development Facility and how it could be accessed to develop the shea value chain.

There were also deliberations on prospects of domesticating the cultivation of shea tree, which only grows in the wild.

The capacity building on the second day covered technical aspects of shea processing, enhancing shea business competitiveness through effective and standardised supply chain management with emphasis on safety.

Branding and packaging, product formulation and certification, export procedure and logistics, export financing and policy advocacy were other issues covered during the training sessions, the statement said.