Our rejected poison

• Published date: 08 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Nigeria must look in the direction of the items we export, for quality, to avoid incessant rejection

It beggars belief that we are still talking of rejection of our agro-produce despite our decades of experience in the business. The latest hint of this came from the President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, African Export-Import Bank (Afrixembank), Prof. Benedict Oramah, who said that the bank was working towards addressing the problem. Oramah spoke at the official commissioning of the Africa Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC) in Shagamu, Ogun State. He said: 'Due to poor quality over $700 million worth of agro-produce are rejected from Europe alone.' He added that

'About 76 per cent of exports from Africa are rejected annually. We are working with a lot of organisations to create the framework for the harmonisation of standards across the continent'. The Shippers Association of Lagos (SALS) estimates that 82 per cent of the country's agro-allied products are either seized or rejected by EU countries because they are illegally exported without certification of government agencies.

It is particularly distressing that this problem persists despite the fact that the factors leading to the rejection of our agro-produce have long been identified. The popular saying that a problem identified is half solved does not seem to have meaning to us in this country. We have had a lot of seminars, workshops, symposia, etc. where all manner of solutions had been proffered and reports presented towards solving the problem; yet the challenges refused to go away. Our food products continue to face rejection at the international level.

This made the Federal Government to set up a committee inaugurated in May, 2022 by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, to look into the issue. The committee, whose members were drawn from the ministry and some parastatals of the ministry, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and select members of the private sector, was charged with the responsibility of identifying the major causes of the rejection of the agro-produce and proffer appropriate recommendations.

The committee submitted its report to the minister in Abuja in September, last year. Chairman of the committee and Director, Commodities and Export Department of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Suleman Audu, who presented the report to the minister, told the government what to do to make our products competitive in the international...