Despite adding palm oil to the foreign exchange restriction of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to encourage its local production, Nigeria spent N299.6 billion on the importation of the commodity between 2017 and 2022.

A new report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed the commodity is often in the top five most imported agricultural products.

Despite the importation ban, Nigeria imported 302,000 metric tons of palm oil in 2017, according to CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele. This is because current production levels cannot meet local demand, which averages three million metric tons per year.

Experts believe that Nigeria can do more because the country has the knowledge, land, climate, and history to succeed in palm oil production.

However, analysis shows that Malaysia is where Nigeria sources most of its palm oil, with N151.5 billion of the product imported during the period.

This is followed by India with N65.2 billion, Ivory Coast with N22.4 billion, China N20.3 billion, Singapore N20.6 billion, Indonesia N17.1 billionn, Columbia N1.4 billion, United States N727 million, Ghana N130.6 million, and Cameroon N4.26 million.

Historical records suggest that Nigeria had a fine collection of gen plasm—the oil palm planting material—that the world liked. Most of the palm oil then came from the wild groves, which were not planted because Nigeria had a natural grove of oil palm.

The Malaysians understood the need for a West Africa gen plasm and collected materials from the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) in the 1960s and mostly 1970s. Since then, Malaysia has become the world’s second-largest producer and exporter of palm oil after Indonesia.

On the other hand, Nigeria’s palm oil industry is mostly dominated by small-scale farm holders, which account for over 80 per cent of local production, while well-established companies account for less than 20 per cent of the total market, according to a report by PWC.

The two largest producers, Okomu and Presco, contribute largely to the market share, but the dominance of small farm holders in the palm oil market has resulted in low output compared to the country’s production potential.

The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA has given hints on the necessities for the country to be among the full beneficiaries of the $3.4 trillion offered by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

Investors King reports that improvement in its Customs services and reduction in the cost of doing business in Nigeria have been advised.

According to the Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, Nigeria must upgrade its electronic customs and customs services, thereby improving the country’s Customs System.

He noted that adequate measures should be taken to ensure quality standards and proper checks of cargoes.

His words, “About 55 African countries are involved in this. Our own responsibility is to ensure trade facilitation. So, for Nigeria to gain in this, we need to ensure there are standardisation and quality checks of cargoes. 

“Nigeria needs to improve its Customs processes. We need to update our e-Custom and Customs services. We need to reduce the local cost of doing business. We need to reduce the bureaucracy and then there must also be awareness.”

Speaking on the efforts of the government so far, the NPA MD said sensitisation programmes were conducted to enlighten Nigerians on the benefits of AfCFTA.

He applauded the government for its steps so far and urged them to improve trade facilitations across its agencies.

Bello-Koko further explained that the Nigerian Ports Authority on its part has set up export processing terminals to aid export processes.

He noted that the NPA is partnering with the National Export Promotion Council to ensure that the domestic export houses are linked to the Electronic Call-Up System for prompt service delivery.

“For us in NPA, what we have done is that we have set up export processing terminals. The essence is to improve the quality of exports, especially agro exports. This reduces time wastages and the incidences of some of our agro cargoes going out of the country and arriving at the port of destination spoilt. So, we are working with the NCS to ensure that these things improve,” the NPA Boss said.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown that prices of selected food items increased in November. 

According to the NBS Selected Food Prices Watch Report for November 2022, released in Abuja on Monday, the average price of 1kg rice (local) increased on a year-on-year basis by 18.95 percent from N421.02 in November 2021 to N500.80 in November 2022.

While on a month-on-month basis, the average price of 1kg rice (local) increased by 2.73 percent from N487.47 recorded in October 2022.

Similarly, the report added that the average price of 1kg of tomato on a year-on-year basis rose by 30.18 percent from N350.15 in November 2021 to N455.13 in November 2022. 

While on a month-on-month basis, 1 kg of tomato increased by 0.15 percent from N454.46 recorded in October 2022.

Also, the report showed that the average price of 1kg brown beans (sold loose) rose by 18.03 percent on a year-on-year basis from N490.19 recorded in November 2021 to N578.55 in November 2022.

While on a month-on-month basis, the price rose by 2.45 percent from N564.69 recorded in October 2022

Investors King understands that the increase in the price of the selected foods is a result of inflation which has astronomically increased the price of goods in the market.

Similarly, several Nigerians have been affected by low purchasing power leading to low Christmas celebrations in many homes.

It could be observed that market patronage during this period was not at its peak as expected. 

In Abuja for instance, a number of malls and shop owners around the popular Wuse Areas had lamented low patronage, noting that customers are being shy away from goods because of the increased prices. 

However, for many Nigerians, 2022 has been the most challenging year, with 21.47 percent year-on-year inflation, increased insecurity, a 33.3 percent unemployment rate, a high poverty rate, slow Gross Domestic Product, (GDP) growth rate, among other economic miseries.