The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is projecting that, the country’s shea sector export would increase by 40 per cent as the council partners with the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) for the training of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on processing shea.
Currently, the CBI is training about 40 companies that deals with shea export in Abuja in a bid to reduce the export of raw shea into the international market.
Speaking at the launch of the training ‘Shea Development Programme’ on Wednesday, the executive director of NEPC, Dr. Ezra Yakusak said “this intervention will contribute to making a paradigm shift from the export of raw unprocessed sheanuts to higher value-added shea products.
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“The aspiration is to uniquely position shea products in the enormous global market which is driven by important factors such as; rising consumer awareness, increasing demand for natural and organic cosmetics without preservatives and chemicals.
“NEPC in line with its mandate has been supporting the development of the shea industry in Nigeria from farm gate to internationalisation. The council through the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had implemented the STDF project 172 on expanding the exports sesame seeds and sheanuts/butter through improved Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) capacity building for the private and public sectors.
He explained that “as part of the sustainability component of the project and in order to scale up the knowledge and information acquired under the initiative, processing facilities were established in four centres which today have led to the proliferation of best practices, traceability and investments in both small and large processing facilities across the country.
“I also wish to bring to fore that NEPC put up a proactive response to ensuring that Nigerian stakeholders benefit from the emergence and continuous buyers demand for sustainable environment friendly and healthy products.
“NEPC through its product and market development activities in collaboration with strategic partners as Global Shea Alliance (GSA), International Trade Centre (ITC) SheTrades, West Africa Trade and Investment Hub successfully exposed Nigerian brands in specialised and general trade fairs and conferences globally, these efforts have yielded positive outcomes.”
Yakusak said “It is worthy of mention that a lot is currently being done by NEPC to provide packaging solutions to small scale stakeholders to expedite their product penetration into the huge export market.
“May I at this juncture specially recognise and appreciate our partners, specifically, CBI for always identifying with the council in promoting and implementing critical projects in advancement of the non-oil export economy. NEPC promises its unflinching support to the sustainability of these projects and hereby reiterates its willingness to continue working with CBI and relevant partners,” the ED stated.
On her part, the project manager of CBI, Dorianne Wegen said the aim of the training is targeted at helping SMEs in the shea sector of Nigeria to grow.
She acknowledged that the sector has huge potential, and if properly harnessed, would economically impact huge population of the country.
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