As the giant of Africa, Nigeria can no longer rely on a fragile foreign exchange earning regime from crude oil sales that have reduced the nation’s economic profile to near zero, but to ensure that economic diversification drives agriculture revitalisation, information technology, and human and capital developments. Given its ability to create massive employment for the people, the Shea tree investments will scale up women’s empowerment and stand out as export earnings in the sub-sector, among others, OTARU OSHIOKEH writes
A critical look at the global value of Shea production and export reveals in the year 2023, that the production and value of Shea along the value chain was $2.17 billion while it is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CACR) of 7.19 percent by 2030, representing total sum of $5.8bn.
Also, the global market value for chocolate was estimated to be approximately $113.16bn in 2021 and expected to reach $156.74bn in 2030, for the cosmetics industry, it stands at $380.2bn and is expected to reach $453bn in 2026.
There is no gain in saying, therefore, that the opportunity for Shea investments that can transform Nigeria’s economy could be found in the areas of job creation, value addition, increased foreign exchange earnings, and women empowerment, among others.
Presently speaking, countries like India, Japan, and South Korea are approving the use of Shea-butter as a Cocoa butter equivalent, apart from China, Italy, and the Netherlands which are equally among the leading importers of She-abutter, there is therefore, a ready market for quality Shea butter in the international market,” the Global Shea Alliance (GSA) 2024 conference revealed in Abuja.
Similarly, the President of the National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPAN), Mohammed Ahmed Kontagora told our correspondent that Nigeria currently accounts for 52 per cent of Africa Shea but loses over $1.5bn foreign exchange earnings yearly from Shea products, a situation he said, must be revised.
According to him, the nation is targeting at least 10 million Shea trees by 2024 to be able to export over 400,000 tons.
The above scenario indicates an urgent need for the Nigeria government to diversify her economy from present crude sales volatility to the non-oil sector cutting across mineral resources, increasing cultivation of cash crops like cocoa, coffee, palm produce Shea trees, Soya Beans to mention few that will enable the nation meet her foreign exchange obligations towards accelerated development.
Unfortunately, too, Nigeria’s crude oil revenues have continued to slide with its attendant rising inflation, high rate of unemployment, public debts overhang as well as the deadly poverty figures that have made life miserable for the down-trodden notwithstanding the vast economic potentials inherent in the non-oil sectors spread across the nation’s landscape.
Today, the negative effects of the government’s poor revenue generation have become evident as available statistics obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that while Nigeria‘s current inflation rose to 33.69 per cent in April 2024 from 29.9 per cent in January 2024, the country’s unemployment rate also nosedived to 5 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 from 4.2 per cent in the previous year.
Equally sad for the economy is the Debts Management Office’s (DMO) recent revelations that Nigeria’s Public Debts presently stood at over N97.34trn as of the fourth quarter, 2023, while Nigeria’s poverty rating shows that the country is found among the 12.9 percent of the global population in extreme poverty with less than $1.90 a day for her citizens.
However, figures from the Global Shea Alliance (GSA) revealed that African countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote D’Ivoire represent 60 per cent of global Shea producers
The Managing Director of Global Shea Alliance [GSA] Aaron Adu said that Shea is equally used for cooking oil, skin moistened, hair conditioner, soap, medicine, and edible fruit are among the many uses of Shea [also called karate] in savannah bed. Rural women collect its nuts and process them to make shea-butter, a significant source of income where there are few other options. The Shea tree field space with staple food crops, providing ecosystem services of erosion control, groundwater recharge, and leaf mulch.
In a message at the recent 2024 Global Shea Alliance conference, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nonye Ayeni disclosed that Nigeria is one of the major producers of Shea in the world as record available shows that Nigeria is blessed with about 5million hectares of Shea presently grown in about 21 States across the Federation especially in Niger, Kebbi, Oyo, Kwara Benue and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) respectively.
Ayeni explained that to facilitate value addition and niche products, the council signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) under the Shea Export Development Project 2022-2025.
“The partnership with CBI is aimed at enabling a paradigm shift from export of raw Shea-nuts to processing into high-value exotic brands, certified as organic labels ready to earn niche positioning in the African and other markets with a 30 percent increase in the value of export earnings, we are delighted that this project is already yielding the desired outcome,” she said.
She explained that other interventions in the area of value addition include, the provision of grants under the Export Expansion Grant Facility (EEPF) to eligible stakeholders in the Shea sector to increase their production capacity, provision of 2,500 improved Shea seedlings to some major stakeholders as a commitment towards reducing the indiscriminate felling of Shea trees and affirming its support to Shea Park Land programme of National Shea Products Association of Nigeria [NASPAN]stressing that the NEPC remains committed to its core mandate by selecting Shea as one of the 20 top products to focus on in the next 12-18 months.
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In a goodwill message at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite said that the government is already making efforts to tackle some of the challenges faced by the Shea industry in Nigeria like indiscriminate felling of Shea trees, lack of standard Shea processing facilities and lack of awareness on best practices.
She said, “I am delighted to inform you again that relevant government agencies are making concerted efforts to maximise the potentials of the Shea sector in Nigeria thereby, increasing export volume and global supply of Shea products, I am foreseeing multibillion naira Shea-based industry springing up in the country and Africa at large.”
“A comprehensive hands-on capacity building session for Shea farmers, producers, and exportation was incorporated in our export programme while the council has signed a Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] with the Centre for Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) under the Shea export development project 2022—2025,” Ayeni said.
In a remark at the conference, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) charged Nigeria and other African Countries to improve the quality of their Shea exports as a lot of the commodities do not meet the sanitary and phytosanitary measures required for export.
It said, that despite the clear benefits and advantages in the production of Shea, much of the potential of the commodity is still untapped.
The WTO Director-General, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, while delivering a virtual address at the conference said it was crucial to look at the Shea value chain beyond farming and processing for butter.
“At the WTO, Shea is one of the main agricultural exports of over eight of our members including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote ‘d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo, in Ghana alone, Shea butter exports were valued at over $92 million in 2022 and over one million women are involved in this sector,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
Despite the seeming bounty of Shea butter products in the market and on beauty counters globally, little-known threats to Shea trees are looming.
The local causes and consequences of felling Shea trees can reverberate internationally, market projections predict continued growth in exports of Shea nuts and butter to Europe and North America with new markets developing in East Asia over the next 5 years. Global demand for Shea butter is driven by Shea-butter’s value as an edible fat that can be used in chocolate as well as in skin, hair, and other personal care products. With most butter-making in Africa’s savannah belt taking place informally outside of record–keeping, reliable production data are scarce, clearly, though, imperilled conditions for Shea trees jeopardize global supply.
It is, however, disheartening that Shea Trees in recent times have shown a rapid decline with regards to its failing numbers with an estimated 8 million Shea Tress lost annually, GSA laments.
According to GSA, this colossal loss is caused by a variety of factors including, a reduction in the farm-fallow cycles for natural regeneration, mechanized agriculture and associated land clearing tree removal for use as fuel wood, lack of planting due to culture and a long gestational period and above all, a lack of knowledge on successful integration.
The just concluded Shea stakeholder’s annual conference in Abuja brought together members from the National Shea Products Association of Nigeria [NASPAN] and the Global Shea Alliance (GSA) unveiled the Shea 2024 Abuja declaration even as they call to Action for a Shea Parklands in Africa.
Speaking while unveiling the Shea Parkland, Maryam Hassan Asumali from Niger State Shea Co-operatives, said, “We, the members of the GSA at the 2024 conference in Abuja are committing to the Action for Shea Parklands initiative to restore 4, 000,000 hectares of Shea parklands by 2030, specifically, we commit to achieve the followings,- 10,000,000 new Shea and natives will be nurtured, 10,000,000 women Shea collectors and processors will revitalize parklands, 10 countries will partner and improve their policies regarding Shea parklands managements.
“We will work collaboratively to achieve this objective in partnership with women Shea producers, fellow GSA members, government institutions, national associations, and other stakeholders,” she remarked.
