The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in partnership with the National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN) has attracted a €300 million investment into the Nigeria’s palm oil industry.
In a statement made available to BusinessDay, Alphonsus Inyang, president of NPPAN said that UNIDO’s investment in the sector will boost local palm oil production and create over 300 jobs across the value chains.
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“The main purpose is to stimulate investments in the real sector and to use technology to make the industry attractive to investors. For a long time, the oil palm industry in Nigeria has been stagnant,” Inyang said.
The palm oil industry is not producing enough to meet industrial demand.
He revealed that in November 2024, a team of investors from 15 different companies including European investors, most of whom were from Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, and Malaysia, came to Nigeria on a nine-day tour of Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.
He noted that the €300 million investment will be done across the oil palm value chain — palm wine production, packaging and replanting new trees up to 30,000 hectares – in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.
“The palm wine business is to create over 100,000 new businesses for tappers while the trunk business will create over 200,000 jobs in the two states,” he added.
Inyang stated that Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers States were chosen as the states for the €300 million investment because they have the largest number of smallholder farmers which is the target of UNIDO.
Regarding the role of the federal government, Inyang said the association has proposed a model to the government that can make Nigeria the third-largest palm oil-producing country in the world if implemented.
He said, “We are currently fifth globally at 1.4 million metric tons per year, a far cry from Indonesia which ranks first with 50 million tons per year.”
The palm oil president assured that if the government works with the model, then the country could ramp up production.
He called on the federal government to encourage more households into palm oil cultivation, adding that, “it will be the most ambitious and most comprehensive programme of government ever.”
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He stressed that Nigeria’s dependence on Malaysia and Indonesia for its palm oil needs is at risk if local production is not ramped up, urging Africa’s biggest nation to look inward because it has the capacity.
“We have the capacity. The market is there. We have the largest population in Africa. Yet we cannot produce enough for ourselves. Ivory Coast is the net exporter of palm oil in Africa and the size of Ivory Coast is only one-third the size of Nigeria,” he remarked.
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