The sharp decline in crude oil prices late 2015 and the attendant economic downturn in the country were enough reasons to migrate from Nigeria’s oil mono-economics and explore alternative resources. This was exactly what the government of President Muhammadu Buhari determined to do.
The buzz words were diversification and alternative sources of revenues in the face of oil price slump. Agriculture and solid minerals were top on the agenda. But agro business was on the front burner as Nigerians were urged to return to the farm and to also look to agro-processing as viable alternative to shrinking state cash. One state governor had to declare Friday work-free to allow civil servants attend to their farms.
But all these may well be mere sound bites. Not much has changed; not even the government’s agric policy which was touted as an augmentation of its predecessor’s programme has made much difference. President Buhari had vowed to develop the agric sector and ensure food security but so far, those seem like mere speeches.
As a first test, the agric budget remains poor, falling far short of all internationally accepted indices. The current agric budget is just about three per cent for a population of about 170 million. This is a far cry from the Maputo Declaration which recommended that for African countries to forestall food insecurity, at least 10 percent of budget be devoted to agriculture.
The result in the last two years is that prices of foodstuffs have skyrocketed, with shortages experienced in some perishable products like tomatoes and pepper. Major staples like rice, poultry products and fish are still largely smuggled through the land borders. Major industries still import basic agric raw materials like maize, wheat and palm oil.
Though several funding schemes have been introduced, appreciable impact has not been made. Apart from rice production which enjoys Central Bank of Nigeria’s direct intervention, no other product has shown sign of improved funding support. However, while there are increased activities in rice production and processing, the impact has not reflected much on price yet; a lot more needs to be done to develop the entire value chain in a sustainable manner.
One key index of the fact that agriculture has not received the requisite attention is the fate of cocoa processors in the country today. The Cocoa Processors Association of Nigeria (COPAN) has lamented that if government continues to remain nonchalant to their plight, they risk becoming extinct.
They claimed that out of the eight processors operating in Nigeria, six which are locally owned are burdened by huge bank loans of about N50 billion. They explained that the foreign firms thrive because they source funds abroad at single digit interest rate while they, their Nigerian counterparts, have to grapple with commercial loans with interest rates ranging between 23 to 27 per cent.
We expected that in the much-vaunted attempt to diversify the economy, cocoa, which is known as the king of cash crops would be the natural recourse for Nigeria’s various governments. But apparently government has only been long of talk but short on taking concrete and sustained action.
Going by COPAN’s lament, hardly anything has been done along the cocoa value chain. The chairman of COPAN who is also the managing director of Cocoa Products (Ile-Oluji) Limited said: “We are looking for a government that will listen, that will come out with a policy targeted at developing our economy. The economy of this nation can only be developed through agriculture and the factor of development in agriculture is through industrialising agriculture by encouraging value addition and local consumption.”
Cocoa is key to diversifying Nigeria’s economic base and we are nonplussed that the government has not taken a rigorous and sustainable step towards overhauling and driving the cocoa value chain. We urge government to not only support the processors but to urgently move to restore Nigeria’s glory as a major in the global cocoa market.
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