TO all intents and purposes, the report indicating that Nigerian exporters of agricultural produce are now taking their produce to the ports of the neighbouring countries for export must be troubling to right-thinking Nigerians. According to reports, this unfortunate development stems from the rejection of Nigerian cargoes exported abroad due to their poor state when they arrive their countries of destination, a direct corollary of their undue delay at Nigerian ports. The story is that given the huge financial losses they had suffered over the years, Nigerian exporters have now found succour in Ghana, Togo and the Republic of Benin. According to industry stakeholders, when most of the cargoes that end up being rejected abroad arrive at Nigeria’s ports, they are in good condition.

However, after spending between three and six months waiting at the port because different regulatory agencies raised red flags over them, they end up rotting. Said an exporter: “The export procedure at the ports are not streamlined in a straightforward manner. The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has its own procedures, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) also has the Export Processing Terminals (EPTs) to guide the export process.

The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) have their own procedure too. So, when these cargoes, mostly agricultural produce, arrive at the ports, the terminal operators who are supposed to pre-arrange them for shipment get confused when different government agencies raise different red flags just because the cargoes didn’t pass through their own export procedure.

“At times, cargoes spend six months at the ports because government agencies with overlapping functions governing export business fail to agree. In most cases, these cargoes are perishable food items, will they not be rejected abroad? There is no way such cargoes won’t get rejected because they have spent too much time waiting inside the port to get the necessary clearance from different government agencies, and by the time they are shipped for export, the agricultural produce are already deteriorating. In this situation, do you blame the exporters? We need to streamline our processes. There are so many government agencies involved in the export business and they don’t seem to be working together. Imagine NAFDAC raising red flags over an export cargo that left the EPT set up by the NPA? Sometimes, if it’s not NAFDAC, it will be SON raising red flags. Are these agencies not domiciled at the EPTs set up by the NPA?”

Fearing the rejection of their produce in Europe and other countries and in a bid to avoid further financial losses, Nigerian exporters now adopt the ‘country of origin’ and ‘labeling’ of neigbouring countries to ship their commodities abroad. Said another exporter in the report published by this newspaper: “The majority of the produce, especially yams, that pass through Ghana to Europe are from Nigeria. When this same produce goes through Nigerian ports, it is rejected abroad due to negative labelling and perception of Nigerian exports by their prospective buyers. This perception has been built over the years due to the delays export cargoes go through at our ports. So, it is always a case of ‘Can anything good come out of Nigeria’? So, to avoid further losses, export cargoes like agricultural produce and edibles are now being labelled as originating from Ghana and other West African countries. Many of our colleagues take their goods to these countries via road haulage and then export them abroad from there.”

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It is indeed saddening that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and the so-called giant of Africa, cannot properly manage its exports. It is a no-brainer that a country that has not earned the trust and confidence of buyers of its agricultural produce abroad is not ready for economic prosperity. This situation is extremely distressing, especially given the policy enunciated by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, namely that no foreign vessel must depart the shores of Nigeria empty-handed. As Nigeria’s export agencies bicker and flex muscles, export cargo produce rots, costing the exporters that packaged them terrible financial losses and psychological trauma. This is, we dare say, criminal betrayal of Nigeria’s agropreneurs and businesses by the Nigerian government. It is troubling that rather than facilitating exports, the Nigerian authorities are killing exports and making exporters to regret being Nigerian citizens.

How can a Nigerian exporter of yam, say, be forced to load them in trucks and send them to Togo, Ghana and Benin before (s)he can export them? Apart from the issue of national pride, it is saddening that Nigerians have to incur considerable losses conveying their produce to the ports of the neighbouring countries for onward transport abroad. Those countries get credited with undertaking production that actually took place in Nigeria. While we have nothing against Nigeria’s neighbours, we are saddened that Nigerian exporters have to make a recourse to them in order to do business. To us, this is completely distressing and dispiriting. It reinforces the notion that Nigeria does not offer a clement climate for business, and that nothing works in Nigeria. How can Nigeria make progress in such a situation?

Surely, the agencies concerned with exports must streamline their operations. It is time Nigeria reduced or eliminated manual clearance of cargoes outright. The world over, the thinking is that there should be less human involvement in certain activities. The current regime of endless delay at the ports is a disincentive to investment. It is a huge irony that low quality goods end up in Nigeria but Nigeria can’t readily export anything. Even the process of conveying the goods by road costs a lot of money as revenue agencies accost trucks on the road. Some of the goods should even be transported by trains, anyway.

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