Stakeholders Mobilise to Position Coffee, Tea as Nigeria’s Major Export Commodity

Dike Onwuamaeze

The West African Specialty Coffee Association (WASCA) has declared that it would reposition coffee and tea production to end the dominance of the importation of the products and enable it to be among Nigeria’s major foreign exchange earners.

President of WASCA, Mr. Larry Segun-Lean, made the declaration during a two-day World Coffee and Tea Expo in Lagos with the theme “Exploring Circular Economy and Regenerative Coffee and Tea Agriculture.”

Segun-Lean said: “What we are creating now will help the government to begin to see coffee and tea as a major revenue earner for Nigeria now that we are facing scarcity of dollars, which is propelling a frightening galloping inflation in Nigeria. Probably the government will from now start capturing coffee and tea into its programmes because no country will prosper without active export earnings.

“The last estimate of the combined turnover of coffee, tea and mate in Nigeria is over $28 million per year. Even though 80 per cent of coffee sold in the United States of America comes from Africa. Not only that, coffee in Africa provides jobs for 120 million people.”

Presenting a paper during the expo, the Oyo State Chairman, National Coffee and Tea Association of Nigeria, Mr. Salihu Imam, said that a bean, a small black bean, could be turned into real gold and major foreign exchange earner for Nigeria.

Salihu said: “Coffee is the second most traded/valuable of all commodities and first in agricultural commodities in the world.   Tea is also well sorted after crop in the World.

“We in Oyo State are poised to go in to massive production of coffee as from the next planting season. We are poised to churn out and plant two million seeds/seedlings in the next 2-3 seasons.

“Production of coffee in great quantity is encouraged by the Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture and the ministry’s permanent secretary. We are also in collaboration with the Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN), Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and WASCA.

According to a representative of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Mr. Clement I. Akhigbe, the annual production of coffee in Nigeria was 1.117mt in 1969 while the annual demand was 1.500mt in 1979.