Exposing Nigeria
Audu Ogbeh Ans The Yam Export Brouhaha: Our Findings -By Ajayi Godfrey Sunday
As a private driven, development focused Network of Export Entrepreneurs, we have analyzed the conversations around the recent Audu Ogbeh led Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development export of 72 metric tons of yam to the United States and the United Kingdom.
At a consultative meeting held in Abuja, the Board of the Export Entrepreneurs Network (EEN) concludes on the need to draw the attention of Nigerians to the following facts;
Yam, yam products and export consist of enormous capacity to contribute to foreign exchange earnings through export as fresh yam, dry yam, animal feeds, yam chips, yam starch and yam extracts for alcoholic beverage and can lead to employment creation, income generation and foreign direct earnings.
However, while statistics from Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) show that Nigeria is by far the world’s largest producer of yam, accounting for 61.7 per cent of the world’s production annually and with over 60 yam varieties produced across the states of the federation, Nigeria is not among the world’s yam exporting countries.
This confirms the seeming position of the Ministry of Agriculture that the potential for yam production in Nigeria is grossly underutilized as the majority of yam producers concludes that it is not viable for export, therefore, there is high need to identify and disseminate the information on the potentials and possibilities of huge market existence for yam export to enable subsistence yam farmers to discover a market for their yam as well as develop more ‘yampreneurs’ along the value chain.
Our findings show that the Ministry of Agriculture is implementing tripod strategic objectives of efficiency in operations, flexibility, innovation and learning and when we assembled these initiatives into a matrix it resulted in a framework that will help Nigeria gain global competitive advantage arising from economies of scale from access to more customers and markets.
In practice, when we plotted these three initiatives into a framework using three sources of competitive advantage consisting of national differences, scale economies and scope economies, it shows that relying on the step taken by the Ministry of Agriculture to export yam to the referenced countries the following will eventually be achieved in the short term;
- Scale in the production of yam across the country
- Sharing of investment in the value chain between local investors and foreign investors
- Export Market induced policy and experience cost reduction and innovation
- Shared learning across the yam value chain as a result of multi-cultural actors
While we commend this rigorous adventure of the ministry, it is our conclusion that there is still enormous work to be done if the ministry, the economy and by extension Nigerians would fully benefit from the available opportunities and advantages that yam export offers.
To this end, the EEN makes the following recommendations;
- That ministry of agriculture coordinates with the ministry of trade and investment to announce a comprehensive yam and other Agric produce export policy.
- That the policy should include a MERCHANDISE EXPORTS FROM NIGERIA SCHEME (MENS) aimed at incentivizing export of merchandise which is produced in Nigeria with rewards of MENS duty credit scrip that is transferable and can be used for payment of a number of duties including the basic customs duties.
- That the ministry should announce a Services Export from Nigeria Scheme (SENS) to provide reward for service providers in the yam value chain based on net foreign exchange earned
- That the ministry should support the Export Entrepreneurs Network to continue its work of reaching out to new and potential exporters through orientation programs, counseling sessions, individual facilitations and bespoke services on various aspects of foreign trade to be able to get into international trade and boost exports from Nigeria.
- That the ministry should pursue the introduction of Interest Equalization Scheme on pre and post shipment credit to provide cheaper credit to exporters.
It is on this positive note that we declare our full support for the Honorable Minister and his team, and call on Nigerians not to throw away the baby with the bath water, rather to join the ministry and seize this opportunity to make yam a staple food across the globe.
Ajayi Godfrey, Sunday
National Coordinator
Export Entrepreneurs Network
Suite 3, Floor 3, Abiding Grace Plaza,
Gudu District, Abuja.
