Save Us From Bankruptcy, Vegetable Oil Producers Beg Government

The Vegetable/Edible Oil Producers Association of Nigeria has raised an alarm over its members’ inability to run their businesses and service bank loans.

The association’s national chairman, Chief Okey Ikoro, made the appeal at a news briefing yesterday in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

Ikoro stated that they were at risk of bankruptcy due to the continued influx of imported oil, which was harming their businesses.

According to him, despite policies aimed at discouraging the importation of vegetable oil into Nigeria to support local producers, unscrupulous businesspeople continue to import and sell at lower prices, thereby driving them out of business.

He blamed officials of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and other enforcement agencies for the continued collapse of the vegetable oil production industry in the country.

Ikoro said the enforcement agencies prefer to bend the rules and allow importers to run his members out of business.

He said, “Some of our members took loans to expand their businesses, but officials of the Customs look the other way and allow people to bring in vegetable oil, which is cheaper than ours.

“I pay over N30 million to Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) monthly, workers’ salaries, buy produce and incur other running costs. How can I sell at lower prices than someone who imports and doesn’t pay import duties on their goods?

“It’s so bad that they don’t pay duties; rather Customs officials will seize it and then quietly release it to them in their office. That way, they don’t pay, so they sell cheaper and kill our businesses.

“Already, our members are on the verge of folding up because we can no longer pay our workers and even service our loans to boost our businesses. Government must come to our rescue urgently to save job losses,” he said.