FG flags off campagn to boost shea nut production #nigeria

The Ministry of State for Industry, Trade and Investment has
flagged off a campaign aimed at boosting shea nut
production in Nigeria.
The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr.
Samuel Ortom, explained that the move is in line with the
President's present transformation agenda to institute
policies that will positively drive quality certification of the
nations agricultural commodities prior to processing and
export.
Ortom during the flagging off ceremony in Abuja said that a
study released by the Food and Agricultural Organisation
(FAO's) reveals that Nigeria's shea trees produced 57 per
cent of the entire shea nuts across the shea belt in Africa.
"It is however unfortunate to inform you that Nigeria hardly
process five per cent of its shea nuts to butter neither do we
pick nor export up to 20 per cent of the entire shea nuts
produced annually in the country.
He pointed out that the remaining 80 per cent is left to
rotten away un-utilised maintaining that the out-put of the
shea industry in Nigeria has the potentials of being equal
with other agricultural commodities like cocoa, sesame
seeds, soya and a host of others," he said.
The Minister stated that the programme which is in
partnership with the National Shea Products Association of
Nigeria (NASPPAN) and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development will no doubt impact positively on the
out-put in the sheanut industry, enhanced job and wealth
creation, improve employment generation, and act as means
of fighting poverty as well as enhancing the diversification
of the nation's foreign exchange earnings.
According to the minister, the flag-off of the national shea
nuts/butter season for the year 2014 and commencement of
the international training programme for the grass root
stakeholders who are primarily involved in picking and
processing shea nuts, signifies the beginning of a new era
in production, processing, marketing and exports of the
commodity.
He said the major challenge of malicious activities in the
shea nut industry is middle men who make advance
payments to the pickers which activities involves the
picking of shea nuts that drops naturally from the shea trees
in the farm land within three days but were influenced to
mop up sheanuts that do not meet the required quality.
"This is because some of them are involved in nefarious
activities of shaking the shea tree branches in order to
harvest unripe shea nuts and therefore collect together both
good and bad nuts. This has hitherto resulted tremendously
reduction in the quality Shea products in the country," he
said.
He said Nigeria's affiliation with the global shea alliance in
the past made the organisation in January 2014 to conduct
training programmes in shea cream and shampoo
production in Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger and Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) respectively adding that, materials
for the training programme have already arrived in Nigeria
from the global shea alliance head quarters Accra, Ghana
and would be made available during the training sessions.
In his contribution, the representative of the Minister of State
for Agriculture and Rural Development, Shea Desk Officer,
Mr. Charles Ezinma, stated that Nigeria has lost $2.1 billion
to activities of smugglers from expected $3.8 billion per
annum from foreign exchange stressing that his ministry is
addressing the issues of long gestation of the crop, poor
storage facilities and smuggling.
Earlier, the acting President of National Shea Products
Association of Nigeria (NASPAN) Mrs. Nelly Osagie
Ndaguba urged the federal government to encourage
regeneration of shea tree woodland park across the shea
belt, improve quality control assessment for sheanut and
sheabutter, quality and provision of modern laboratory as
well as provision of ware houses.
She said the collection of levies by NSAPAN for every shea
nut/shea butter taking out from the country should be
approved as practiced for other commodities in product
certification.