Why Nigeria Can't Compete Globally In Agro-Exports

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

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

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, which 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.

The national president of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), Ademola Adesokan, said Nigeria possesses the climate, crops and comparative advantage 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 a 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.