Federal Gov’t Raises Committee To Curb $600m Annual Palm Oil Imports

The federal government has inaugurated a National Palm Oil Traceability Framework and an Interagency Committee in a major move to revive Nigeria’s palm oil industry and reduce the country’s over $600 million annual expenditure on imports.

The initiative, launched under the National Initiative for Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS), implemented in partnership with Solidaridad and IDH with aim to boost local production, ensure ethical sourcing and build a transparent supply chain.

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Speaking at the inauguration in Abuja yesterday, the minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, represented by the permanent secretary, Dr. Marcus Ogunbiyi, described the framework as a bold step towards reclaiming Nigeria’s position as a global palm oil powerhouse.

In the 1960s, Nigeria accounted for over 40 percent of global palm oil production, however, the country has dropped to less than two percent, with annual production at about 1.4 million metric tonnes against a demand of over two million metric tonnes.

To address this, the minister emphasised that the National Palm Oil Traceability Framework will serve as a strategic tool for ensuring food safety, enhancing market competitiveness, and aligning production with sustainability and ethical standards.

The initiative, he noted, is in line with the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) and the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which places agriculture at the centre of economic diversification and food security.

He added that the newly inaugurated interagency committee will drive the design and implementation of a national roadmap, coordinating efforts across federal and state agencies, private sector players, processors and farmer cooperatives.

“The establishment of a national traceability system for palm oil is a clear demonstration of our determination to modernise agricultural value chains, enhance global competitiveness and promote responsible production and sourcing throughout Nigeria’s oil palm sector.

Sustainability is the language of the now and the future, a litre of palm oil without a story of its origin will no longer find a market. We must produce responsibly, transparently, and sustainably”, the minister said.

Also speaking at the event, programme manager of Solidaridad Nigeria,  Kene Onukwube, said the traceability framework will bring a two-pronged benefit, an effective tracking system for palm oil and a corresponding policy to institutionalise its implementation.

He highlighted Solidaridad’s contributions to the development of the framework, including piloting successful traceability models in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Enugu, and Kogi states, with support from the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

“With traceability in place, we expect improved efficiency in production, processing, and distribution, currently, part of the reason Nigeria continues to import palm oil is the lack of a system to track local output back to producers. This reform can correct that.

We have demonstrated that effective traceability is possible,” he said. “Now, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry, we are helping to scale it nationally by aligning stakeholders, providing technical support to the committee, and identifying both challenges and opportunities in the process”, Onukwube said.