Nigeria has Greater Prospects in Agro-allied Produce Export than Oil

As the prices of crude oil continue to nosedive and drastically reducing Nigeria’s income, a new interest is found in agro-allied produce as alternative source of foreign exchange. In this interview with Chinedu Eze,the Managing Director and CEO of ABX World Nigeria, Captain John Okakpu explains how his company together with others are promoting airlift of agro-allied cargo and how Nigerian farmers could multiply their income through export.

Practically ABX World is a cargo and a courier organization. We started business in 1998 as Airborne Express and along the line DHL bought Airborne Express perhaps in 2002, so we were left with no choice than to setup a new network. So that new network is what metamorphosed to ABX World.  My goal here is to bring Nigeria back to where we are supposed to be, which is rebuilding our agriculture industry and instead of dependence on oil begin to earn huge foreign exchange from agro-allied produce which in the next few years will certainly outstrip oil revenue.

Where we are now is no more classroom work; rather the actual field work. We have gone beyond classroom theories; unfortunately, in Nigeria a lot of people are still living in classroom work. So while I am here this morning is not to give a theoretical form of producing glucose from starch, but actually making the glucose from starch. In ABX World our goal is to champion agro-allied export in Nigeria. We don’t want to lead; we are leading. We have come to make our mark, to create a revolution in Nigeria. I will not say what is impossible because this thing has been possible, but due to certain distractions in Nigeria we got ourselves lost.

Agro Allied has to do with agricultural products in conjunction with transportation, logistics mostly in aviation. I am an aviation expert. I feel Nigeria has to tap from the knowledge I have in this area of business. I have to be able to use the skill I have to harvest results before I exit this world. Every single one of us in Nigeria today has our own gift and skill, our own expertise but if we don’t make use of it for people to benefit from, then it is useless. I am here proudly to tell the Nigerian people that the time has come for us to invest and earn foreign exchange from agriculture.  We have suffered a lot in Nigeria; you all know. You know the price of crude oil in the market today. Nigeria is one dimension economy, mono-economy focused on crude oil export and import of refined products; that is it.

Our banking sector is nowhere to be reckoned with the rest of the world. But believe me God wants to redirect Nigeria, that is why we are now facing the lowering price for crude oil. People like me will say, okay let the crude oil be zero or one dollar per barrel because that will wake us up from the slumber. It has to go to one dollar per barrel because before crude oil was found in Nigeria, Nigeria was doing well with agriculture, then suddenly we lost ourselves because of natural mineral that should have lifted us up. For Nigeria to balance her budget today crude oil has to be sold at $128 per barrel. How do we make up the difference? Is it by producing more? Do we have the capacity to produce more to make up the difference? These are part of the issues. So we have no choice than to go back to the basics, which is agriculture. And that is basically why we are here today. ABX World has partners in Europe and in the other parts of the world that will make a difference in patronisng agriculture produce imported from Nigeria. To create agricultural revolution revolves squarely on bringing in the off-takers to take agricultural produce as long as they meet the international standard and requirements.

First of all, we have to engage a lot of supply chains around the world, especially in Europe, because about 60 per cent of what is going out of Nigeria will be destined to Europe. So what we do is to engage a lot of supply chains, bring in the supply chains then liaise with the government, both federal and states; then get the farmers, which has to be through their Corporative Societies, because most of these farmers have to be fully registered. And these farmers have to be trained on the dos and the don’ts involved in what they are into. The next step is to get them certified. Once you get them certified you can be guaranteed about three years contract.

So there is a need for the training and certification which is the most basic, because from the training you will you know your right, on what you can do and what you don’t have to do. What kind of pesticide you don’t have to use, what kind of preservative chemicals you can use, the limit and every other things that goes with it and these are part of what we do-bringing the supply chain and the farmers together. And ABX World is in the middle to handle the logistics, because most of these products are really what we call “time-age”. In other words, there is a time you harvest them and there is a specific time you must arrive at the market. That is our area of expertise. Whether it is from Kaduna, Zamfara, from Nsukka or from Yola, we have to sit down and work out the time it can get to its destination. And we have already started doing this and it is working very well. We now want to take it to the Nigerian people.

Now you really touched me in the area I never wanted to delve in because that is one bone of contention in Nigeria. Yes, there are some airports designated as cargo airports in Nigeria but to me I will call that blue-sky project. Now what I mean by blue-sky project is that it will never work. I had some meeting with the Federal Airports Authority (FAAN) officials about two, three times in the past months and I gave them reasons why it will never work. The world is changing. Most of the aircraft manufacturers direction, in terms of aircraft industry, is changing. There will be a time you will not have a cargo airline because of the new trend in technology in aircraft manufacturing.

For example, Emirate is taking the lead in this direction. Some time ago, Emirate ordered for 150 Boeing 777-300ER. This aircraft takes over 400 passengers, takes their luggage plus their excess and still have the capacity to carry 30 tons of cargo on two engines. When Emirates placed an order for these aircraft for 150, each of those aeroplanes is about $280 million and they placed an order for a 150 pieces. Some people do not have a clear sign of where they were coming from. Why did they do that? For example, Emirates comes into Lagos for two flights a day: in the afternoon and in the evening with the same 777-300ER. So imagine Emirate coming into Lagos with two of their flights and taking 30 tons of cargo in each of that flight, that is 60 tons. Now 60 tons they are carrying is one flight of Airbus 330 cargo airplane. Airbus 330 takes about 60 to 65 tons. That is what they are carrying with passengers.

So at the end of it they eliminate so many areas in terms of cost, in terms of government bureaucracy, in terms of every other thing. Now if you start designating 13 airports in Nigeria as cargo airports, first of all, is it viable for cargo airline to fly there, go there and drop cargo and carry cargo? Or just go there to carry cargo? In most of these aircraft their technical stuff is about $30,000.  So you come to Lagos to drop cargo, you have to now fly to Makurdi for another $45,000 to take what? And take it to where? On how much cost?

So in looking at it world over, most of the passenger terminals have to be the cargo terminals. For example, most of these agricultural produce have to move on a daily basis. When you harvest them to the time they get to the destinations is about18 hours. You cannot tell me you load a British Airways with full passengers then you tell them to stop at Enugu to carry 5 tons of cargo because Enugu is designated as cargo terminal. It does not make any sense. Just like they built Akure airport, who goes there? It is not the government that would go there. So government can designate more than 100 airports, are they the ones that will fly there? It is the private sector, so what I am coming to tell you is that what I am into is a one million percent private sector investment.

Yes, government has a lot of roles to play in this part, but as far as that 13 cargo airports are concerned, they are blue-sky projects, that will not work. The only airport I can say is fit for a cargo airport in Nigeria is Ilorin. This is because Ilorin is at the entrance and the exit point of Nigeria. But the problem out there in Ilorin is the road network. Where are the roads that will take you to other area? It is non-existing. So it is easier for a cargo airline to come into Nigeria, drop their cargo in Ilorin, pick some of the produce that might come within that area and off they go. If you start taking a Europe flight to Calabar, that is crossing the airspace; when they get to Calabar what are they dropping in Calabar? Is there enough cargo from their place of origin into Calabar to go and carry whatever you say you have at Calabar? So these are part of the things. You know the bureaucrats come up with polices that will never work. And I keep telling them I am one of the guys that say it will never work. This is 2015 we are not in the 1960s.

Presently, we have 75 lists of the products.  Out of the 75 items, the top line product exported out of Nigeria is a leaf called “Ugu” (pumpkin leaf). You cannot believe that today if you bring 40 feet container full of “ugu” it will sell everyday. That is one of the high products out of Nigeria. Bitter leaf is there; sweet potato, ginger, garlic, among others.

 We don’t preserve them, ours is transportation. We have experts, people that do that for us. If you go to Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL), which is our processing centre, I can proudly tell you that today SAHCOL has built a first class, world standard warehouse. In terms of preservation that is not our goal, our goal is fully logistics, bring in supply chain, getting the farmers, putting them together to be trained and certified. For example; in the field, if you are supplying like groundnut, peanuts you cannot do garri. Why? Because of allergy; these are part of the things the supply chain will be made to know during the course of their training with the farmers. They will carry out geo-mapping programme that will help to locate and identify every farmer, where he is getting his produce so that when you mix the produce it creates problem and they will be easily detected back there in Europe. One other area, which is of very great importance is putting the produce in place so that if there is problem a buyer from the US, for example, might have problem with the product and he will be to pick out the exact point of where the problem is coming from.

It is not going to be like in Nigerian situation where Dana Air flight had a crash; they grounded the whole of Dana fleet. You don’t do things like that. In a civilized world you narrow down that particular aircraft, the type within the series and you take care of them, the airline continues to operate. So what we are about to do in the industry is geo-map the people through all necessary technology; when they have a problem they single out only the farmer, they will narrow out the exact point where that thing came from and right from there they can now isolate that without grounding the farmer, grounding the product, grounding the whole nation. We all know today that brown beans are banned from Nigeria. You can’t take it into Europe because of the chemical used in preservation. Then in terms of cassava peel, nothing out of cassava is a waste including the peel. If you bring 100 containers worth of cassava peel it will go the same day from Nigeria, but the problem they have with cassava peel outside Nigeria is that when people are drying it, they dry it on the tarred roads and thereby socking chemicals. Therefore, we have to train our people on how to dry these things; that is why the training and certification is very important. If done well that is what will reposition Nigeria, so we have to do the training and certification. And once you are able to put Nigerians through in this field believe me, the rest is history. The off-takes are there.

Yes, that is the reason why we said in the course of getting into this, each farmer has to be properly trained and certified, afterward, a contract will be given to you for three years. They will keep in touch with you with your programme. For example, there is a product in Nigeria that I have not mentioned, that as far as I am concerned is number one world-class product that no body knows it exists. It is called “Nsukka yellow pepper”. It is number one world-class product in Nigeria. This is a product that cuts across every group of people on earth and we have the best here in Nigeria in Nsukka community, Enugu State. Not even one goes out of the country! Now let me tell you something, I came across that pepper for the very first time in 1989 and used it in cooking because it has good flavor and makes food taste very good. So, this “Nsukka yellow pepper” is something I have very deep passion for, because I know the importance of that pepper.

You know I keep telling people that you don’t have to use maggi, knor cubes etc., if you use this product very well. One thing people don’t understand about cooking is that it’s like an art. You can look at an art and somebody will say this thing is worth $50 million, you won’t believe it. But because the person has seen it, what that person is seeing you are not seeing it, that is what cooking is all about. I came in after getting some of the licenses and I started tracing the “Nsukka” pepper where it is being grown. I went to Nsukka and met the people, telling them ‘There is something in here that the world wants and needs which you have and you don’t know that you have it’. The Igwe of the town said, ‘What is it?’ I said that pepper. He was amazed. I am very happy because I want Nigerians to know that they cannot suffer in the midst of plenty. They cannot lack in the midst of plenty.

There is something the Igbo people use to say that you cannot be in the middle of an ocean and be using spit to wash your hand, it doesn’t make any sense.  Yes this is a private sector investment but government has a role to play. For example ginger. Nigeria has one of the best gingers if not the best ginger in the whole world. But the Chinese people will do whatever it takes to discredit Nigerian ginger in the market so theirs will be sold. That is the area that the government has to come in. Like sweet potato from southern Kaduna, you look at garlic these are things that people like me can sit down and say okay Mr. President, look at this list, go to EU and tell them not to disturb us. They said they are our friend, they want to work with us, that is your job: to clear that political obstacle and let the private sector people now come in and engage Nigerians.

It is the private sector that will create the jobs. It is not the government’s but to enact innovative policies.  Government cannot create jobs anywhere. You cannot ask government to employ two million people, government will employ 10,000 and 2,000 people, it is not so. Rather, it the private sector investment through the good policies of government that will do this. So what we are saying in essence is that ABX World will help to increase alternative source of foreign exchange for Nigeria through the development of foreign market for Nigeria’s agro-allied products. Our goal is to create 20 million jobs in the next two years. I am going to tell you how possible that will be. 

Let me go back to the crude oil issue. Today if you strike crude oil on this land where we are sitting right now before you get one barrel of crude oil it might take up to three years and you might only engage about 10 people to do that, maximum 20 people within three years you will have the crude oil. But in agricultural sector, most of the products we are talking about here are three, four months to harvest. So that means that there are certain products you can cultivate three times a year. And now imagine 10 million people doing it, what the effect will be in our economy from logistics, to packaging, to security; it just goes on and on. So what I am saying in essence is that Obasanjo Farm is one farm, but would I rather deal with the corporative society of 10,000 than dealing with one Obasanjo Farm or Dangote Farm. That is the reason why our goal here is grassroots based; getting down to the people not the big farms.

That is the reason I said from the beginning it’s all about certification and training. Believe me what we are doing, land will become gold, backyard farming will thrive hence people knowing fully well that if you cultivate this somebody will take it up from you. Knowing fully well that you have been trained to farm and produce it to this standard and knowing fully that the off-takers are there waiting.‎ What again will prevent the people from participating in agriculture and forget about crime!

A lot of state governments are interested, but one state is already in it. Anambra State is far ahead of these States. We are already in agreement with them. They have about 1,400 Corporative Societies and they have gone to the extent of setting up a training programme for most of the farmers and also the certification of the corporative Societies and also looking at the geo-mapping of the areas in terms of putting them on a one-state for people to be easily identified. They are already far ahead of a lot of people and they are very adaptable. Why are they doing this? From my interaction with the state government in Anambra, the Governor wants to be independent. He wants to improve the State’s internally generated revenue (IGR) so that he will not wholly depend on Federal Government. And how do you do that? You create security, you create good road network, and you create nightlife. These are things that will get people involved, bring in investors and tourism.

As a matter of fact the best area for “ugu” leaf in Nigeria is within the same Nsukka area where this yellow pepper is grown. For example the “ugu” itself, there are some certain chemical, which is allowed by EU and some organisations that you can grow “ugu” with. When you harvest it the life of the freshness will be longer than you just do it without that chemical. For example, maybe when you have harvested it after six, seven, eight hours it will start collapsing with some certain temperature but when you grow it with this chemical it can prolong it up to 24 to 48 hours and still remain fresh. So these are part of the things people will learn from the training.

As far as growing of “ugu” and other vegetable is concerned, it depends on where it is adaptable and people are ready to engage in it. But the bottom line is this, looking at what we are into; I know 70 per cent of what we are engaging in right now has to come from northern Nigeria. Now talking in terms of the economic part of it, we have over 10 million Nigerians living outside Nigeria. Now let’s take that each of those 10 million Nigerians spends a $100 (USD) in a week on the item coming out of Nigeria; that will transform into $1 billion per week. In a year that is $52 billion. These are just 10 million Nigerians alone. So, imagine a $52 billion economy what it will be like?

Today, Nigeria is so behind that if I start expressing how behind we are in agro-allied you will be shocked that a nation as big as Nigeria that even Rwanda that just launched their own agro-allied terminal, can even seetomorrow than Nigeria! We have approached FAAN in terms of establishing a warehouse-processing and packing warehouse in Nigeria. It is non-existing here. You have it in Ghana, you have it in Nairobi, in South Africa, you have it in Johannesburg Cape Town, Durban. It is almost in the big cities of Africa. Coming to Nigeria not even one. Unfortunately, nobody has even thought of it. I have engaged FAAN in terms of establishing one and the warehouse; the processing unit is a facility you have to put at the airside, landside to have an access to the terminal. That is why we call it airside/landside and by mere doing so it will involve not only the export but also the import.

Go to Shoprite most of the things they are bringing in to Nigeria, who checks the quality? Nobody. But facilities of these nature, not only checks the quality of what is coming in, they check the quality of what is going out, thereby eradicating people dumping illegal or unwanted product in Nigeria and creating bad image for us. Now this facility we are trying to work with FAAN, yes I have spoken to them, they were talking about this 13 designated airports and I said please forget it. Let’s look at the reality. What we have had to do with passenger. For example, the British Airways, Arik, Virgin, Lufthansa, KLM, South African Airways, they come into Lagos and Abuja and go. So those are the two areas we are interested. We met so many times on establishing these warehouse and the processing warehouse, from your question, will take care of a lot of things. Checking the quality of what comes in and out of Nigeria, the packaging aspect of it, because you see, today you know about 29,000 Nigerians that they want to depot out of the UK and so many other places. You know what that means? These are Nigerian that works in smaller places, warehouse and all other places and the labour in UK for example pays about 7 pounds an hour. That 7 pounds takes care of one person, in Nigeria it takes care for about a minimum of 20. So, storage and processing package like this, most of these supply chain in Europe and around the world will bring in their packaging material and it will end at that facility.

That is where they now will package their stuff ready to the supermarkets and the outlets around the world. You just bring in the product whether “ugu”, tomato, ginger and the rest; it goes to the section they packages it, straight back into the aeroplane after certification by the quarantine, NAFDAC and all related government agencies, all in one building. But getting the facility ready depends on the readiness of the federal government through FAAN.  To be honest they have to change their mentality about certain projects. Nigeria can be great again.