Stakeholders Seek to Revive Exportation of Nigeria’s Agro Produce

Industry experts in Lagos recently agreed to join forces to revive the exportation of yam, beans, cocoa and other agricultural produce from Nigeria to the U.S. and other countries.

The experts at an interactive consultative meeting organised by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) at its regional office in Lagos, lamented the ignorance of some Nigerian exporters making other countries to take the credit for produce from Nigeria.

They stressed the need for a synergy and collaboration among the various agencies to increase exports from Nigeria under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA). AGOA is a trade preference programme that provides duty-free treatment to the United States importation of certain products from eligible African countries, which include Nigeria.

Experts were drawn from 19 agencies and they included the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), and Nigerian Expanded Trade and Transport.

Others are, the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, Carmine Assayer Ltd, the Lagos State Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Co-operatives, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank, Fidelity Bank, Heritage Bank and Access Bank, among others. Declaring the forum open, NEPC’s South West Regional Co-ordinator, Mr. Babatunde Faleke, said that Nigerian exporters were not utilising the opportunities available to the country to export 6,400 products to the US duty free.

Faleke lamented that yam, cocoa, beans and other produce from Nigeria were usually smuggled from Nigeria to other African countries, before being shipped abroad because of stereotypes that Nigerian agricultural produce goods were not of good quality.