Nigerian exporters overlook $150bn ECOWAS market for Europe, America

Nigerian exporters have failed to explore untapped opportunities in the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), preferring rather to sell their goods at European and American markets.

Industry experts are surprised that Nigerian exporters, who should dominate the $150 billion ECOWAS market have left the closest market where a large chunk of their products can be easily sold, for sophisticated markets where logistics costs and the possibility of rejection are higher.

“Nigerian exporters are neglecting the ECOWAS market,” said Tunde Oyelola, chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Export Group (MANEG), in a telephone interview.

“This is mainly a result of lack of awareness. This is one reason why we are setting up trade houses. Once this market is exploited and developed, ECOWAS will make a great trade impact,” Oyelola added.

Out of $2.43 billion non-oil exports in 2014, ECOWAS shared only $350.8 million, less than 15 percent of the total.  In 2013, Nigeria’s non-oil exports to the region was merely $375 million, out of almost $3 billion worth of exports.

Data from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) show that goods demanded in the region include biscuits, noodles, tobacco products, plastics and rubber, footwear, polybags, milk products, beverages and fruit juices,  among others.

Obiorah Madu, chairman, export group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said it is important for Nigerian exporters to any region to begin to think of value addition in order to increase the value of their goods.

“When you sell raw products, you get peanuts,” said  Madu, at the National Agro-Commodity Export Stakeholders Forum held in Lagos.

He said what is frustrating exporters from tapping into key opportunities is the absence of an incentive, which often makes exported goods from Nigeria more expensive in the international market.

“The cost of our logistics infrastructure is very high.  Most times, the local price of a commodity is higher than the international. This is why I stand on behalf of exporters to call for incentives. Exporters need incentives,” he added.

Intra-regional trade among ECOWAS countries is estimated at 12 percent, showing clearly that the giants in the region, such as Nigeria, are not yet tapping into the market of 350 million people.

“Several years after regionalism, intra-regional trade in ECOWAS is still consistently low at about 12 percent,” said  Kalilou Traore, ECOWAS commissioner for industry and private sector promotion, while announcing plans to establish ECOWAS business houses.

In spite of Nigerian exporters’ moves in the European, American and Asian markets, many of their products still do not reach the destinations as they are rejected on the basis of poor quality.

The European Union, in August, banned, till 2016, Nigerian beans from coming into its market. The European Food Safety Authority said the rejected beans were found to contain between 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, despite that the acceptable maximum residue limit was 0.01mg/kg.

Other food items banned were sesame seeds and melon seeds. There were reports that the EU had, before the ban, issued 50 notifications to Nigerian exporters, saying that the pesticide used for the food items was harmful to human health. However, in the usual Nigerian manner, the notifications were dumped into the trash cans.

“When the international community sets standards or dates for compliance, we do not have to dilly-dally, believing that our commodities will be accepted when we export them,” said Charles Malata, technical supervisor, the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI), a project supervised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), at the media professionals workshop tagged ‘The Concept of Quality in Nigeria’ held last week in Minna, Niger State.

ODINAKA ANUDU