Following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s extension of the ban on the export of raw shea nuts for another year as part of efforts to strengthen local processing and industrial development, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr John Isemede, has reignited the call for the establishment of commodity board and commodity exchange by the Federal Government.
Dr Isemede who disclosed this to New Telegraph in Lagos, said that Tinubu’s extension of the ban was not a sign of progress. He accused government officials or the MDAs as the problem rather than the middle men as working as agents of the West.
According to him, “the issues of commodity boards/ commodity exchange must be addressed if really we want to run agric like the good old days. Looking at the above position from the government and as an expert, I can say that there is no need to jump for joy or smile on the extension of shea nuts export ban.
“The questions is, a global trade of $7 billion and Nigeria is the number one nuts producer with 58 per cent of global nuts yet it cannot get one per cent out of the $7 billion global trade figure, is that not a lamentable picture. “Again, shea nut or butter is contributing 0.01 per cent to our GDP, which is very poor to say as shown on the WTO World Trade-map chart.
Who can show us the incentives along the chain at home to run this if exporting raw nuts to the non-producing nations at rock bottom prices kill our businesses at home and to favour their friends/agents outside just for the love of the USD.
“What of our local production plans? Is there any on the table or local capacity to produce shea nuts to butter at home?” He said Nigeria as a nation needed commodity boards like the Western Region commodity board of 1946 to 1986 and a working commodity exchange office to drive produce trade since there is no real local production capacity or value addition along the chain from the upstream to the midstream, then to downstream at home to engage after over 700 trade agreements signed with the rest of the world.”
The former NACCIMA DG stressed: “We can add them because it was when the ban was six months and five months gone. But now, no change and the government is proposing another one year, which to me without local production capacity of nuts to butter will be the same running in a circles.”
On Nigeria’s trade policy, he said: “I worry about how we do policy in Nigeria. I see there was some attempt at consultation before the latest extension. But what happened to those that suffered losses as a result of the initial ban.“No one who has worked in a proper policy environment would find our approach funny.
Policies follow evidence gathering (which is published as a basis of consultations), robust consultations with stakeholders to fine tune evidence and policy proposals before a final decision is made. Even when decisions are made, there’s usually a transition period to allow for adjustments.
“In exceptional cases where policies must take immediate effect, efforts are made to minimise adverse effects and to compensate those affected negatively. “We can’t keep doing things anyhow and expect to reach Eldorado somehow.
In my close to two decades of working on trade in Nigeria, I’ve seen us struggle to get our policy process right. “Not for lack of ideas or recommendations on how to do it, but we don’t just care or we allow individual interests to dictate our policies.
“Even from an administrative law perspective, a public authority cannot make decisions that affect a person’s interests without fair hearing. “As a way of strengthening our policy making process, especially in trade and related areas, I’m happy to work with interested persons or groups to challenge some of these policies in court.”See More, Details. .
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
