Okonjo-Iweala Tasks FG to Ensure Return of Abducted School Children, Teachers in Kaduna, Sokoto

•Unveils $1.2 million initiative to stem agro-export rejections, build capacity of farmers, small businesses, others, says Nigeria’s future lies in digital trade 

•FG to launch National Trade Intelligence Unit

James  Emejo in Abuja

Director General, World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, yesterday expressed dismay over the recent abductions of pupils and teachers in Kaduna and Sokoto States, calling on security authorities to rise to the occasion and ensure their immediate recovery.

Okonjo-Iweala, who said the abductions were saddening, particularly urged the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to do everything possible to ensure the safe return of all the missing persons.

Speaking in Abuja at the launch of the 2024 Technical Assistance and Trade Support programmes for Nigeria, which was an initiative of the WTO, World Bank, and International Trade Center (ITC), she said the abductions were particularly worrisome realising that education remained key to creating economic opportunities for the people.

She said, “It’s always wonderful to be back home in Nigeria. But I must confess that while I am happy, I am also sad. I am sad because I am here at a time when once more hundreds of our school children and teachers have been abducted, as a mother, grandmother, educator and someone for whom education is paramount for creating economic opportunity, I am very sad and with the representative of my brother, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu here, I hope he can be able to recover them very soon in Kaduna and Sokoto.”

Nonetheless, she said the WTO’s latest interventions would assist the quest to bring benefits directly to the people by supporting the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, the federal government, and the states to pursue the country’s objectives of diversifying the economy.

She said the country’s agricultural sector has the potential to be a major driver of export diversification and job creation, adding that too much of the potential remained unrealised, due to a variety of barriers.

She said, “We all know the story about Nigeria being a significant exporter of palm kernel, groundnuts, palm oil, cotton, and cocoa in the past– but again we all know, the country has since become a net importer of many of those goods.

“Nigeria has not only lost out in agricultural export markets, it is a net food importer spending about billions a year for goods, many of which we can also produce here.

“A World Bank paper put it, and I quote ‘Nigeria… used to be a formidable agricultural exporter. Up to the mid-1960s, the country’s share of world agricultural exports was more than 1 percent… However, agricultural exports collapsed as the economy shifted towards petroleum exploitation, and by the mid-1980s Nigeria’s world market share for agricultural products had dwindled to less than 0.1 per cent.’”

Okonjo-Iwealal pointed out that some of Nigeria’s unrealised potential had to do with trade-related problems on the supply side – adding “and that is what this project is seeking to rectify”.

She said Nigeria remained the world’s largest producer and consumer of cowpeas adding that sesame is primarily an export crop, with Nigeria being the world’s fourth leading producer, exporting to the EU, Turkey, Japan, South Korea and other Asian markets.

The WTO boss, however, pointed out that the country’s cowpea and sesame exports have increasingly faced rejections in several destination markets due to non-compliance with international Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) requirements.

She said, “For example, Nigeria accounts for over a third of Japan’s sesame imports – but health and safety inspections during the past few years have found instances where pesticide residue levels were nearly double the maximum residue limits permissible from 2019 to 2021.”

To tackle these problems, Okonjo-Iweala said the new programme seeks to develop the “capacities of stakeholders across the sesame and cowpeas value chains to better understand market access requirements, to improve agricultural practices such as pesticide application, hygiene techniques, harvest and post-harvest methods, and food safety.”

She said the project – which will kick off with an initial $1.2 million – of which nearly a million comes from STDF – will also be used to train local food safety advisers.

She explained, “This type of project is one I term a low expenditure, high impact project. The WTO is not a financing agency like the World Bank or IMF but it has a wonderful secret that I find very attractive. It spends small sums of money to make a big impact. You cannot imagine how a million-dollar intervention can earn Nigeria hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions in increased agricultural exports, supporting improved incomes for farmers, exporters, businesses and others once agriculture producers and exporters follow the correct sanitary and phytosanitary standards.”

She stated, “However, to succeed fully, we also need partnership. One of the big gaps in the sesame and cowpeas value chains is the lack of quality post-harvest storage and transport infrastructure – that is, things like modified atmosphere and airtight storage, or the use of triple-layered bags.

“Some producers may be applying pesticides during storage and transport to compensate for storage and transport conditions that are conducive to pests.”

She, however, pointed out that the “STDF project on its own cannot solve all these issues – we would like to partner with other organizations or with states, to improve the storage and transport infrastructure.

“If we can make this sesame and cowpeas standards upgrade a success story like we did with the Oyo Shea Butter then we shall be able to look at other export crops and scale up. The goal is to get Nigeria back as an important quality agriculture exporter.

“But this agriculture quality upgrade project is not all we have for you today. There are other interventions we hope to make happen soon.”

She also said Nigeria remained one of the pilot countries for the WTO-World Bank Digital Trade Initiative for Africa, which seeks to improve the digital connectivity of the Nigerian economy and regulatory capacity.

The former Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister for the Economy, also disclosed that the country remained one of nine pilot African countries to which the World Bank has allocated about $1 billion for the pilot project to support the digital economy. 

She said, “I know the World Bank is already doing some work in this area, including trying to crowd in private investments and where possible working with the Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy.

“We hope this pilot Africa Project can help enhance this effort in Nigeria to support digital trade. The future of trade is digital and digital trade is the fastest growing segment of trade at this time, especially digitally delivered services trade.

“The future of technology is Artificial intelligence and Nigeria, and indeed Africa must be equipped to benefit from digital tech and AI.”

She said that based on an assessment of where Nigeria stands with its digital hardware and software infrastructure, the World Bank in partnership with the WTO is prepared to assist in developing or upgrading digital (soft and hardware) infrastructure, adding that the WTO will help build the necessary regulatory framework and capacity.

She said, “Now just two weeks ago at the WTOs Ministerial Conference, the WTO and ITC launched The Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund. This $50 million fund is meant to support women entrepreneurs who are trading digitally to scale up their businesses and access global value chains.

“The fund will open for applications soon and working with Honorable Minister Dr. Uzoka Anite and Ambassador Adamu we hope a proposal can be put up so that Nigerian women can benefit from this.”

In her remarks, Executive Secretary/Chief Executive, Nigeria Export promotion Council (NEPC), Nonye Ayeni, said Nigerian food exports including sesame and cowpea have often faced rejects due largely to poor quality, inefficient procedures, and documentation, Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary issues and improper packaging and labeling among others.

She said a good number of these factors led to the decision of WTO/ITC to sponsor the STDF project, which will be backed by expected 30 per cent counterpart funding from NEPC.

She explained that the project, STDF 845, will therefore, enhance the quality and standard of sesame and cowpea through the institution of good Sanitary and SPS conducts, Good Agricultural and Warehousing Practices (GAWP), packaging/labeling and excellent storage systems.

All these are expected to forestall frequent contract cancellations and loss of business opportunities, while allowing a significant increase in global acceptance of the items and for better quality of these products consumed locally, she said.

According to her, the project is designed to last for three years to enhance the integrity of the cowpea and sesame value chain from Nigeria.

She said, “Therefore, the focus lies on improved practices that will enable Nigerian stakeholders to comply with maximum residue levels of selected pesticides used in Cowpeas and Sesame and Microbiological contamination with Salmonella (Sesame). Overall, it will improve the regulatory and control system as well as the farming and processing practices applied for cowpea and sesame.

Ayeni said in 2022, the global value of sesame export and its value-chain stood at $7.35 billion and is expected to grow to $9.27 billion by 2032. In the same vein, cowpea was valued at $7.2 billion in 2023 and expected to reach $9.43 billion by 2028.

She said with the exciting market opportunity for sesame and cowpea, the country is positioned to have its fair share of the global market especially as we are the third largest producer of sesame in Africa with about 500 metric tonnes produced in 2022.

The NEPC boss urged major producing states including  Benue, Nassarawa, Jigawa, Yobe, Gombe, and Kano among others, to scale up production to capture more market share of the major off-takers of these produce in the global market namely Japan, China, India, the Netherlands among others.

Nigeria remains one of the largest producers of cowpeas globally and also one of the highest consumers – producing 5.2 million metric tonnes of dried cowpeas and consuming 3.6 million metric tonnes annually.

 Also, speaking at the occasion, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, said the country would soon launch the National Trade Intelligence Unit in its pursuit to amplify trade and business efficiency.

The minister said the unit will serve as a revolutionary nexus for all trade-related data in the country, utilising world-class technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, and Big Data to “provide Nigeria with the ability to predict global market trends that will enhance our local and global trading capacities thereby significantly enhancing trade and the ease of doing business in Nigeria, in line with Mr. President’s 8 Point Agenda.”

Uzoka-Anite said, the trade intelligence unit seeks to create a fully automated centre of excellence, a hub of exceptional minds and collaborative efforts with premier institutions, dedicated to gathering and deciphering trade intelligence.

She said through advanced algorithms and tracking technologies, the centre will not only monitor local production and trade with impressive speed but will do so without impeding the flow of legitimate trade.

She said such a resource promises to arm Nigeria with critical production, manufacturing, import, and export information, laying the foundation for effective planning and business operations.

In addition to coordinating the collection and analysis of trade data, she said the trade intelligence unit will serve as Nigeria’s gateway to the future.

She said the government realizes that trade isn’t just an abstract concept but the fuel for economic transformation and industrialisation.

 She said under the visionary leadership of President Bola Tinubu, government remained steadfast in its commitment to foster an environment conducive to international trade.

She said the ministry of trade under her stewardship is currently evolving policies and mechanisms that will facilitate and enhance trade, while also removing all the bottlenecks hampering trade and investment, some of which I will outline here.

Uzoka-Anite, said, “For me my mission as minister is clear: to lay the groundwork for sustainable economic growth and empower our nation’s drive towards prosperity. We are achieving this by facilitating a strong enabling environment for businesses to thrive, developing robust policies and reforms, increasing access to financing, widening access to global markets, driving investments, and creating job opportunities, all in line with the vision of Mr. President.”