President Bola Tinubu has approved a six-month temporary ban on the export of raw shea nut to curb informal trade, boost local processing, protect and grow Nigeria’s shea industry.
The ban, which takes effect immediately, is subject to review upon expiration and is specifically aimed at boosting Nigeria’s shea value chain to generate around $300 million annually in the short term.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who announced the president’s directive on Tuesday during a multi-stakeholder meeting at the Presidential Villa, called on the Federal Ministry of Finance and other relevant government agencies to fast-track enforcement.
Speaking further on the directive, the vice-president said the decision was not “an anti-trade policy but a pro-value addition policy designed to secure raw materials for our processing factories and enabling industries run at full capacity, thereby boosting rural income and jobs for our people”.
He added that the decision “will transform Nigeria from an exporter of raw shea nut to a global supplier of refined shea butter, oil and other derivatives,” just as he said it is about industrialisation, rural transformation, gender empowerment and expanding Nigeria’s global trade footprint.
On opportunities for job creation and income generation, the vice-president said, “Nigeria produces nearly 40% of the global shea product, yet we account for only 1% of the market share of $6.5 billion. This is unacceptable. We are projected to earn about $300 million annually in the short term, and by 2027, there will be a 10-fold increase. This is our target.”
VP Shettima explained that the ban was a collective decision involving the sub-nationals and the Nigerian government, with clear directions for economic transformation in the overall interest of the nation.
The vice-president further highlighted the gender dimension of the policy, noting that “by protecting the shea industry, we are protecting livelihoods, dignity and opportunity for millions of our women.
Earlier, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, who explained how the nation stands to benefit from the ban, regretted that despite being the world’s largest producer of shea nuts, contributing nearly 40 per cent of global supply, Nigeria captures less than one per cent of the multi-billion-dollar global shea economy.
“The Rapid Assessment of the Shea Value Chain, conducted by the PFSCU, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and in close collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, provided the evidence that shaped this Presidential directive,” stated the minister.
The minister noted that the assessment showed that over 90,000 metric tonnes of raw shea are lost each year in informal cross-border trade, even as Nigeria’s “processors operate at only 35 to 50 per cent capacity despite a national installed capacity of 160,000 metric tonnes”.
Kyari further explained that while “regional neighbours such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Togo have already imposed restrictions to protect their industries”, Nigeria is vulnerably left “as the outlier and a hotspot for opportunistic and unregulated buying.
“Shea is one of the few commodities where our country holds both a comparative and absolute advantage. With over five million hectares of wild-growing shea trees, Nigeria has the natural endowment to dominate not only in production but also in value-added processing.
“Shea is also identified in our Zero Oil Plan as a strategic non-oil export. With a projected global market growth from 6.5 billion dollars today to $9 billion by 2030, Nigeria can position itself at the heart of this expansion,” Kyari noted.
