Policy somersaults are responsible for the loss of N127 billion savings which Nigeria could have made if the cassava flour milling industry were virile, say analysts.
Other factors contributing to this loss are high production cost and changing consumer taste.
Government’s inability to effect the use of cassava flour by milling companies, including for baking bread, has resulted in the loss of huge revenues that could have accrued from an active industry.
Also, the sudden stoppage of the cassava flour policy by the immediate past administration, which initiated it, has given some players in the industry the impression that Nigeria is not serious with achieving cassava inclusion in flour.
High cost of producing cassava flour translates into high prices of the commodity, pushing flour millers towards cheaper wheat imported from Argentina, Ukraine, Russia and other parts of the world, BusinessDay’s checks have shown.
Similarly, consumers have shown more preference for wheat over cassava flour, even when it was pursued by the immediate past government of Goodluck Jonathan.
Another factor is the stiff resistance from strong interest groups in the wheat importing and processing industry, who would suffer losses if the cassava mill policy succeeded.
“If the cost of a product is high, it cannot compete favourably,” said Muda Yusuf, director-general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).
“The commitment to see the policy through is not there. It is also a function of the institutions which are supposed to see that the policy is efficient and sustainable,” Yusuf said.
Audu Ogbeh, minister of agriculture and rural development, had said the country would be saving N127 billion annually by focusing on cassava flour through the reduction in import of wheat. Ogbeh added that the cassava flour policy failed because of the high cost of processing cassava.
Africa’s biggest economy continues to be a dumping ground for sub-standard wheat, with the resultant depletion of foreign reserves and rising unemployment.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Nigeria’s 2015/2016 wheat imports are estimated to be five million tonnes, a four percent increase from 2014/2015 estimates, due to Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country, which chased out farmers to less volatile states.
“Consumers are also unwilling to change consumption patterns, which is also increasing the demand for wheat based foods,” said Ikechukwu Onyemenem, an agriculture expert.
“Government only encourages farmers growing cassava but does not look at the processing part of the cassava into flour. There are very few firms that go into processing because it is very expensive,” Onyemenem said.
Nigeria is a major market for a specie of wheat known as ‘hard red winter’. There is also a growing demand for soft red winter for biscuits and cookies; hard white wheat for bread and noodles; and durum wheat for pasta, according to the Nigeria/USDA 2015 Grain Report.
The cassava for producing flour is harvested and processed on the same day. This has led to high cost of production, compounded by the bad roads across the federation, which make transportation difficult.
Besides, the success of the policy would have brought to realisation, the policy on cassava bread, which the last administration reintroduced but failed to bring to fruition.
Despite modest increases in processing facilities and drying operations of cassava by the Federal Government, Nigeria’s capacity to produce industrial-grade cassava flour remains limited, and as such, the cost of cassava flour is considerably higher than that of imported wheat.
In 2002, the Obasanjo-led government mandated flour millers to include five percent cassava flour in wheat flour meant for baking bread and the production of other confectioneries. But the programme was not sustained because of inadequate domestic capacity to process industrial grade cassava flour and was later abandoned in 2007.
President Goodluck Jonathan had said in his 2012 budget speech to the joint session of the National Assembly that the Federal Government would introduce policies to encourage the substitution of high quality cassava flour for wheat flour in bread baking. The inclusion rate is expected to increase from 10 percent steadily to 40 percent by 2015.
However, the policy has been very slow to take effect. From 2015 to date, no bakery in the country is producing bread with the inclusion of 10 percent cassava flour, despite several efforts of successive governments to implement the policy on cassava flour.
Due to the policy, many investors put a lot of money in cassava farming and processing, which are very capital intensive.
“Many farmers bought large expanses of land to produce cassava – they ended up selling their produce cheaply for garri, not even recovering their cost of production,” said Edobong Akpabio, chief executive officer, Green Animalia.
Josephine Okojie
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