Adewole: How Nigeria Can Earn $20bn from Oil Palm Annually
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Okitipupa Oil Palm Plc, Mr. Taiwo Adewole yesterday asked the federal government to set up Oil Palm Development Trust Fund in partnership with producing states as a strategy to earn $20 billion from oil palm production annually.
Adewole, a member of the Nigerian Oil Palm Growers Association (NOPGA), noted that the development fund would help states with comparative advantages to increase oil palm production to the country’s needs and export to other countries that were not self-sufficient.
He made the recommendation at a session with THISDAY at the weekend, disclosing that Nigeria “still imports 25% of its national requirements annually rather than being a leading exporter of oil palm globally.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had revealed that Nigeria could make above $20billion annually from cultivation and processing of palm oil if it maintained its market dominance in the palm oil industry.
In the 1960s, according to the apex bank, Nigeria was the world’s largest producer of palm oil, before it was over-taken by Indonesia and Malaysia.
However, Adewole said with mounting concern that Nigeria, a one time net exporter of palm oil and its allied products, today had become a net importer and losing the foreign exchange benefits that followed it.
Today, according to him, Nigeria has slid to the 6th largest producer in both Africa and the world. Nigeria’s annual palm oil consumption is 1.34 metric ton, while her average Annual production is 1.02 metric ton. She imports annually an average of 0.32 metric ton.
Adewole, therefore, charged the federal government to create Oil Palm Development Trust Funds (OPDTF) in partnership with oil palm producing states, for the development of the crop and to bridge the widening gap between national demand and national production.
The managing director noted that the challenge to re-dress the embarrassing trend was a national task for all the stakeholders, with the government at the front.
He noted that the oil palm development fund “has begun to play its role in this regard with the commencement of the development of additional 6,000 hectares of oil palm plantation around its base in Okitipupa.