The national president of the National Onion Producers, Processors And Marketers Association of Nigeria (NOPPMAN), Alhaji Aliyu Maitasamu Isah, has said Nigeria can generate $420 million annually from exportation of onion if there is value addition.
Speaking at the inauguration of the South-west geo-political zone executive of the association Monday, he said it can be made possible through the provision of enabling environment for the association in order to achieve its aims and goals in the area of contributing to the increment of Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and creating job opportunities through effective and efficient onion production.
He said the NOPPMAN president, despite its commitment to boosting onion production in Nigeria, is facing challenges such as ” double conversion rate, shortage in production and high interest rate from the commercial banks.
“Some of the major challenges faced by the onion sub-sector include, double conversion rate, that is, the currencies of the countries that are importing our products are CFA and Cedis. But the window available for repatriation excludes these currencies,” he said.
Isah added that: “If we have to repatriate using the current window, we are going to incur losses arising from the conversion of these local currencies to dollar and then the subsequent conversion from the USD to Nigerian naira. This is a serious challenge when you consider the exchange rate at the parallel market.
“Some of the major challenges faced by the onion sub-sector include, double conversion rate, that is, the currencies of the countries that are importing our products are CFA and Cedis. But the window available for repatriation excludes these currencies,” he said.
Isah added that: “If we have to repatriate using the current window, we are going to incur losses arising from the conversion of these local currencies to dollar and then the subsequent conversion from the USD to Nigerian naira. This is a serious challenge when you consider the exchange rate at the parallel market.
He added that, “Shortage in production, Nigeria produces 1.4 million metric tons which fall short of its domestic demand of 2.5 million metric tons. This demand gap is largely occasioned by inability to access necessary farming inputs on a timely basis, post-harvest losses due to poor storage facility and inadequate processing plants due to lack of access to cheap credit facilities from government interventions.”
The NOPPMAN president stated further that ” the high interest rate from the commercial banks does a lot to discourage our members across the value chain. If this situation continues, with the increase in population and the fact that Nigeria export onions to other countries, this demand gap will continue to widen except there is quick and timely intervention by Lagos state government and the federal government by extension.”
