By Ben Adoga, Cajetan Mmuta, and Anthony Otaru
Nigeria’s suspension of raw Shea nut exports, announced by Vice President Kashim Shettima as part of a drive to boost local processing and lift revenues to $3 billion by 2027, has triggered a storm of reactions across the country.
While the government insists the six-month ban will transform Nigeria from a raw material exporter to a global value player in the billion-dollar beauty and food industry, women collectors, aggregators, and economists say the policy is fraught with both promise and peril.
For the thousands of rural women who form the backbone of Nigeria’s Shea industry, picking, cracking, and selling the nuts during this peak season, the ban has upended livelihoods overnight.
Many have invested heavily in harvesting and stockpiling Shea nuts for sale to intermediaries and exporters, only to discover that their market has been abruptly cut off.
President of the Helpline Social Support Initiative, Dr Jumai Ahmadu, who has worked extensively with women in the FCT on Shea processing, described the decision as a potential game-changer but lamented its timing.
“Government cannot come up with anything it has not thought through to be good and beneficial,” she said.
“In the long run, this policy will definitely benefit women who are smallholder collectors and also help the Nigerian economy. But the reality is that it was introduced abruptly. These women have already invested vast sums of money only to be told that there is a ban.
“On their own, they lack the capacity to process; even those who try cannot cope yet. They need equipment, finance, and time to adjust,” she added.
One collector in Kwali, outside Abuja, who asked not to be named, told ThisNigeria in frustration, “We have bags of Shea nuts sitting in our homes. Who will buy them now? We cannot eat them. We cannot process them. We were not given notice. This is unfair.”
Also, in what appears to be a swift alignment with the new policy, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has welcomed the ban, describing it as a bold step that would encourage more local production and strengthen the value chain of the cash crop.
“The presidential directive will spur production, improve quality, and generate thousands of jobs across the Shea butter value chain,” the Governor said in a statement.
The announcement comes as Kwara prepares to commission a 50-tonne Shea processing factory in Kaiama.
The facility, regarded as the second-largest in Nigeria and the largest to be owned by a state government, is one of the signature economic projects of AbdulRazaq.
According to him, the factory is deliberately sited in Kwara North to stimulate economic activities in the zone, with the potential to employ a large pool of local workers, including women farmers and Shea nut pickers.
“Locating the factory within Kaiama puts the people at the centre of local Shea production, ensures local ownership of benefits such as job creation, reduced post-harvest losses, and value retention in Kaiama,” the Governor explained.
He added that the project exemplifies backwards and forward integration by combining raw material sourcing, processing, and market access in one locality.
*NASPAN backs move but seeks 90-day reprieve
The National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPAN) convened an emergency meeting on August 26, where it endorsed the government’s policy as a long-overdue industrial strategy but pleaded for breathing space.
In a communique signed by its President, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Kontagora, NASPAN hailed the ban as “not only strategic but also critical in repositioning Nigeria as the global leader in shea competitiveness.”
However, Kontagora admitted the sudden enforcement has wreaked havoc among traders who had already acquired huge stocks of nuts.
“The sudden announcement has created serious dislocations for aggregators, who acquired Shea nuts worth billions of naira for export. Relieved that this is a temporary ban, NASPAN appeals to the Federal Government to grant a 90-day window for traders with verifiable contracts or loans to discharge obligations within this period,” he said.
He further argued that unless the government cushions the shock, small traders and rural pickers risk being ruined. “Aggregators with legally binding contracts before the policy change should be allowed to complete transactions under a regulated framework,” he urged.
Kontagora also called for the creation of a Shea Sector Development Grant to support processors, equipment grants to strengthen capacity, and a Shea Marketing Board to regulate trading and set fair prices.
“Integrating Shea into the Nigerian Commodity Exchange will foster stability, transparency, and fair returns to farmers, women pickers, and processors,” he noted.
*Economists split on $3bn revenue target, local capacity
The government has forecast that by keeping nuts at home and scaling local processing, Nigeria could earn $3 billion by 2027, but economists remain sharply divided.
Emeritus Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Uyo, Akpan Ekpo, backed the logic behind the ban.
“The idea is to protect local industries. Many countries adopt such measures in the short term so their factories can grow strong before opening up to global competition,” he explained.
“If we don’t yet have the capacity, we must build it quickly. Anything that reduces our reliance on crude oil is good for the country.”
But others were far less optimistic. Prof. Agharese Osifo of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, described the policy as another ill-prepared intervention, akin to the removal of subsidies and forex liberalisation.
“This six-month Shea nut export ban is blind to failure because of a lack of planning,” Osifo declared. “We do not have the processing plants to absorb the volume. Women, who are 99 per cent of collectors, will suffer the most. With subsidy removal, inflation, and now this ban, it is renewed hardship, not renewed hope.”
He added, “Nigeria will not capture a bigger slice of the $6.5bn global shea market within this short window. We risk losing buyers to competitors in Ghana and Burkina Faso, while our people sink deeper into poverty.”
At stake is not just Nigeria’s standing in the shea industry but also the credibility of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms.
For some, the ban is proof that Nigeria is finally serious about industrialisation.
For others, it represents a recurring pattern of bold but disruptive reforms imposed without adequate buffers for the most vulnerable.
A middle-level aggregator in Niger State told ThisNigeria, “We are not against local processing. But why not phase it in gradually? Government should not bury us alive while building factories.”
Ekpo countered that short-term pain was inevitable.
“Yes, there will be dislocations. However, with investment in plants and support for women, an economy can be transformed in this way. We cannot forever export raw nuts while others reap the value,” he insisted.
With the six-month clock ticking, women collectors, traders, and processors are demanding urgent interventions.
These include financial support, equipment grants, border policing to prevent smuggling, and the formalisation of the Shea sector through a National Council on Shea law.
As NASPAN warned, “Without support, the ban will collapse under its own weight. But with the right measures, it can create jobs, expand factories, and put Nigeria at the centre of the global Shea value chain.”
Kwara and Niger remain the heartlands of Shea nut trees in Nigeria, with Kwara North alone credited with over 250,000 naturally growing trees spread across 6,000 hectares.
With the presidential ban, new state-backed processing facilities, and growing private investment, stakeholders believe the country is poised to dominate the Shea industry regionally and significantly increase its footprint in the global beauty, pharmaceutical, and food markets.
For now, though, the policy has split Nigeria’s stakeholders between optimism and fear, raising the question of whether Tinubu’s Shea gamble will deliver industrial rebirth or deepen grassroots hardship.
