Nigeria loses over $30 million in export produce annually due to poor quality control and poor packaging and has lost the position of a major hub for cargo freighting in Africa.
This was disclosed by the President of the Association of Foreign Airlines Representatives in Nigeria (AFARN), Kingsley Nwokoma who said that many farm produce exported from Nigeria are returned due to poor quality control and packaging.
He noted however, that the same farm produce when taken from Nigeria to Ghana are packaged and exported as Ghanaian imports, noting that every day truck loads of yams leave Nigeria by road to Ghana where they are exported to Europe and other destinations.
Nwokoma said the Ease of Doing Business policy introduced by the federal government is yet to take effect because the same hindrances that impaired export of goods are still perceived today and these include high charges, inhibitions caused by the Nigerian Customs and poor infrastructure.
He said that although exporting and importing goods by sea take a longer time but poor economy has forced businessmen and women to take the option of sea import instead of air freighting and plan their programme to correspond with the three months interlude it takes for the arrival of the cargo.
Nwokoma lamented that Nigeria does not have perishable centre, facility where farm produce are preserved and packaged for export, noting that because Accra has the facility, it has edge over Nigeria so entrepreneurs prefer exporting cargo from Ghana, including products sourced from Nigeria.
“Our export business is down by estimated $30 million annually in the last few years. This is caused by bad economy, poor quality control and poor packaging. The importing countries have their standards. When these standards are not met they return the goods. Farm produce from Nigeria are returned regularly due to these reasons.
“We don’t have perishable centre like other countries. We have it in Accra. Accra is now the cargo hub for West Africa. It is through Accra that Nigerian yam is exported and distributed to supermarkets across Europe and other parts of the world. With the new African policy on trade, you can import your goods through Benin Republic and move the goods by road to other African destinations. So we need perishable centre, quality control and good packaging of our products,” Nwokoma said.
He however noted that Nigeria is still a major exporter of vegetables from Africa, but the country needs the necessary infrastructure, a review of the existing charges to eliminate existing duplication of taxes in order to encourage more export.
“We don’t have the infrastructure to meet our expectation. We have the population but we should also have the infrastructure. Government policies are not favourable to air freighting. We used to be cargo hub in Africa. People are even discouraged to import due to duplication of charges. Government needs to sit down with clearing agents to solve the problem,” Nwokoma said.
THISDAY
