Nigeria airfreight export revenue surges

Experts say they see an unprecedented revenue surge for Nigeria from export of goods through airfreight in 2016.

This follows a 30 percent increase in the volume of goods exported through airfreight last year, as against the 25 percent decrease in imports between 2014 and 2015.

The volume of goods imported by airfreight in 2015 fell to 100 million kg, down 23 percent from the 130 million kg recorded in 2014, according to data from the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company plc (Nahco aviance).

On the other hand, the volume of goods exported via airfreight for 2014 was about 7 million kg, which increased to about 10 million kg in 2015.

Experts say this increase in exports is driven by the devaluation of the local currency, the naira, which significantly raises the value of exports, and the export promotion drive of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), among others.

Seyi Adewale, chief commercial officer, Nahco aviance, said in an exclusive chat with BusinessDay that even though Nigeria was an import-dependent country, the restrictions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to access to foreign exchange had contributed in the reduction in cargo imports in the country.

Adewale observed that in the past, cargo airliners used to fly into Nigeria laden with goods and then fly out virtually empty, but added that this trend was changing with the government policy and enlightenment programmes by the NEPC.

“Dangote Group has branches all over Africa and some of their raw materials are exported from Nigeria to other countries. With Dangote’s shipment alone, the volumes will radically increase. If not for restrictions in places like Europe on packaging or meeting their exporting standards, we will have had much more exports than we do today,” Adewale said.

According to Adewale, goods exported through air-cargo are household goods, consumer goods, agricultural products and other local products such as locally made artificial hairpieces and paint, amongst others.

On the other hand, most goods imported into the country appear to be luxury goods, such as perfumes, champagne, wristwatches, iced cream, textiles and gadgets, amongst others, according to Adewale.

“We export mainly to West African countries, especially Gambia, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra-Leon, and Republic of Benin, and to other countries. We also export to countries outside Africa but the highest volume through air cargo which is between 40percent to 50percent is to West African countries,” Adewale explained, while looking at airfreight data for 2015.

He noted further that Nigeria had significant export potential but that there was not enough awareness around this.

Other industry watchers say low level of value addition and poor packaging of Nigerian goods for export is major drawbacks.

A diplomatic source told BusinessDay that some time ago, a Scandinavian firm, which extracts the enzyme, papayene, from the papaya (pawpaw) fruit for the manufacture of regenerative drugs, tried to source pawpaw from Nigeria, but soon gave up when local contractors could not deliver the fruits fresh to the airport because of transportation and refrigeration challenges.

The source observed that African countries, including Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ghana, export natural decorative flowers to Europe and the USA through air, from which they earn foreign exchange and was puzzled that Nigeria, which had similar capacity to generate these products was not taking sufficient advantage of the opportunity.

IFEOMA OKEKE