Why Nigeria Can’t Compete Globally In Agro-exports – Experts

Nigeria’s ambition to build a strong post-oil economy through agriculture is facing emerging concerns around structural setbacks, despite rising earnings from non-oil exports and growing global demand for commodities such as cocoa, cashew, sesame and soya beans.

Available trade data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) showed that Nigeria’s non-oil exports rose to about N12.36 trillion in 2025 from N9.09 trillion recorded in 2024, with agricultural commodities accounting for a significant portion of the exports.

Cocoa, cashew, sesame seeds and urea remained among the country’s leading non-oil export products.

However, experts and industry stakeholders in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP, said the figures still expose Nigeria’s weak competitiveness in global agro-export markets, especially when compared with countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Vietnam, India and Thailand that have developed integrated agricultural export systems backed by infrastructure, financing and industrial processing.

Vice president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Daniel Okafor, attributed Nigeria’s weak export competitiveness to poor farmer education, lack of traceability systems and limited compliance with international certification standards required in global markets.

Okafor said many local farmers were not adequately carried along by regulatory agencies on issues relating to agrochemical application, pesticide use and export quality standards.

He explained that the Global Good Agricultural Practices certification, commonly known as Global GAP, remained expensive and inaccessible to most local farmers, especially smallholders who dominate agricultural production across the country.

According to him, “Lack of training, traceability and global gap certification are major problems. Farmers are not properly carried along by the regulatory organisations. The use of agricultural inputs like agrochemicals, herbicides and pesticides must comply with global standards.”

The AFAN vice president noted that the way forward lies in massive investment in farmer awareness, training programmes, traceability systems and agricultural development schemes capable of improving compliance with global standards.

“Farmers awareness, traceability, global gap certification and best agricultural development programmes are very important. If government and stakeholders do the needful, everything will be okay,” Okafor said.

Analysts also argued that Nigeria’s export structure remains dominated by raw commodity exports with minimal value addition.

Despite being one of Africa’s largest producers of cocoa and cashew, the country still exports most of its produce in raw form, thereby losing opportunities for higher earnings from processing and industrial manufacturing.

National president of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), Ademola Adesokan, said Nigeria possesses the climate, crops and comparative advantage necessary to compete globally, but structural bottlenecks continue to undermine the sector.

Adesokan said the country’s agro-export system is largely driven by subsistence farmers operating at smallholder scale, making it difficult to achieve the economies of scale enjoyed by major competitors in Asia and West Africa.

He explained that poor access to affordable credit remains one of the biggest obstacles confronting exporters and farmers, noting that Nigerian agro-exporters borrow at double-digit interest rates while competitors in other countries access agricultural financing at between three and four per cent.

According to him, the financing gap alone significantly reduces export margins even before products leave farms for international markets.

He further identified post-harvest losses, poor storage systems and port inefficiencies as additional factors weakening Nigeria’s export reputation globally.

He said, “Our export sector is predominantly driven by smallholder farmers operating at subsistence scale, which prevents us from unlocking economies of scale,

That financing differential alone erodes our export margins before the commodity leaves the farm.

Inadequate drying infrastructure, inappropriate storage methods and prolonged port delays mean Nigerian produce frequently arrives below the quality thresholds premium buyers demand”.

Industry data indicate that Nigeria continues to spend billions of dollars annually importing wheat, sugar, dairy products and processed foods despite vast agricultural potential, a development experts say raises concerns over whether the country is truly prepared for a sustainable post-oil future.

Although non-oil export earnings have improved steadily, crude oil still accounts for the bulk of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and government revenues.

Adesokan, however, said the federal government’s Nigeria Industrial Policy 2025, being championed by the minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, could provide a framework for commodity-specific industrial reforms capable of repositioning agro-exports.

He said the proposed policy framework recognises the unique production and processing requirements of commodities such as cocoa, cashew, sesame, shea and groundnut, unlike previous generic agricultural policies.

The NCAN president added that the association was engaging government on the establishment of a stronger regulatory framework for the cashew industry, including quality enforcement systems, traceability standards and dedicated development funding capable of improving Nigeria’s competitiveness in premium export markets.