Africans for long have been known to just farm, harvest and sell their harvest produce to make a living but all that are changing fast as Delta State is fully out to change the narrative through the non-oil export.
The oil-rich state now has a platform for grooming its citizens to take the centre stage in the non-oil sector of the economy. They are not just producing products in their areas of comparative advantage; they are more interested in adding value to the products before selling them even to the rest of the world.
In view of this, the state has set up the Delta UNIDO Centre/Export Initiative and put Shimite Bello, a seasoned female entrepreneur and immediate past Executive Secretary of the Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (DEMSMA), as the Coordinator of the Centre/Initiative. The Centre/Initiative is mandated to ensure the non-oil products in the state move to the rest of the world.
At the unveiling ceremony of the UNIDO Centre/Export Initiative and Exhibition of the Made-in-Delta Products, recently, in Asaba, Bello noted that from the raw cassava produced in the state, more products could be produced for the international market. We have our raw cassava and gone are the days in Africa when we work hard in farms, harvest and leave all our sweats for other people to add value on our products, she said.
Bello, who is addressed as Executive Assistant to the Governor on UNIDO/Coordinator, Delta Export Initiative, said: “We are going to be ensuring we partner with so many ministries and MDAs– Micro-Credit Agency, Ministry of Agriculture and as many as can add value to what we do. The Export Initiative would work in tandem with the Delta State Ministry of Trade and Investment to ensure they are adding value to whatever we do.”
There are Federal Government agencies like the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nigeria Export and Import (NEXIM) Bank, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the National Food and Drugs Administration Control Agency (NAFDAC) amongst others who work in partnership with Bello and her team to fulfill the mandate.
Bello said the state has also gone into partnership to ensure it takes advantage of the Outgrowers’ Programme which was launched in the year 2000 with Nigeria not being able to take advantage of it. She said that the window for the Outgrowers’ Programme closes in 2025 as it was signed in 2000, that is 25 years long term. We have only more four years to take advantage of this programme, she lamented, while expressing surprise that Nigeria lagged behind in the African trade, whereas some African countries continue to play in the scheme. She expressed hope that Nigeria as the ‘giant of Africa’ could also lead in the trade in the continent.
“We are saying we want to see more people export to the different countries, especially the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and eventually do proper African trade, she revealed. We want to do more African trade because a lot of things we do like plantain, oranges, periwinkles, crabs yield high earnings and we want to see how that can be done, she added.
She said that in the short-term plan, the state would begin leatherworks export, food and beverages processing for export, profiling arts and crafts for export, identifying fashion and textile for export and consolidating on garri export.
Bello who was part of the committee on the state’s export initiative during Okowa’s first term in office, said, “We’ve only done the pilot which is the garri but I’ve found out that we have been exporting to West Africa and one of our biggest market is Ghana.”
Leatherworks our headline product; No going back on exportation of Delta Quality Garri
The headline product in the state’s export journey is going to be Leatherworks, as 300 persons trained during Okowa’s first tenure are already at work with most of them now at the advance stage. The leatherworks factory was set up at Isselle-Uku in Aniocha North Local Government Area of the state by the state government. Some beneficiaries of the training programme are now technical experts in leatherworks. We’re ready to identify 10 people that we can include in the export market in though 10 is not enough. We are going to do everything possible to ensure that when people think Delta State, they think leatherworks, she said.
The state in Okowa’s first tenure, started its pilot product which is the Made-in-Delta Quality Garri for Export. We are going to spearhead Delta Garri while the Leatherworks is our headline product, disclosed Bello.
Assistance to the exporters
The initiative is out to assist the exporters have access to markets. So, the markets to sell or export their products would not be a burden to them. Also, they would have access to finance as the state partners with relevant financial Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The initiative would assist the exporters with documentations needed for their export business. Other areas of assistance are packaging, labeling and branding of their products.
The exporters
Already, the initiative is working to raise 200 exporters in four years. It also targets over 100 Deemed Exporters made up of Cooperative Societies and Smallholder Farmers, within the period.
There are the Manufacturers Exporters (producers and those who run factories), the Merchant Exporters (they buy products and ship to other destinations), Service Exporters (those service industries like hotels and Information Communication Technology (ICT) play here; then the Deemed Exporters who serve as supply chain to the exporters. they are all called Deemed Exporters. I call it Deemed Exporters because sometimes, they earn even in foreign exchange and most are likely to go into export after two or three years supply to the real exporter.
Bello stressed the need for the people to have understanding of how export works so that they can access the grants that are always available for those who have reached N5 million benchmark to access grant. Most people in Nigeria do export but they don’t benefit from Export Expansion Grant (EEG) because they cannot receive what they don’t know. We want Delta people to be conscious as they do different programmes, that some times, there is money to be made.
Kingsley Emuh, Okowa’s Chief Economic Special Adviser:
Our major export in Nigeria is crude oil, said Emuh but he also believe that the country has not done badly in the non-oil sector considering that in 2017, food export was about N170 billion while in 2018 to 2019, it was about N302 billion.
“So, even though we have not doubled that figure, even though it’s still very low, it means there has been significant progress in that area. And the national Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has identified two export products that we have as sesame seed Cashew Nut, Natural Butter, and Frozen Foods. Ten of these products mentioned by the NBS are key exports that we have in this country.
“But if you come back to our area (Delta State), you find out that even though we have 15,050sqkm of land, 40 percent of that is water. We have a 150km coastal, which means that before fish production, crop production is actually the natural habitat of people in this area.
“So, we have sea potentials in that area. We are major producer of cassava in this country. Delta State in particular, we’re going to constitute major export line. And then, lately, with the initiative with UNIDO, we’re also beginning to do the leatherworks as about 50 percent of the 300 persons trained are technical experts.
“We’re able to see Akwaocha translate to Akwaoma. And then, beginning to use Modern Technology to modernise them so that these people we have in export, as a state, we can really be proud that we have them. The attire I’m wearing today is locally made by our people and they all begin to form export either by our own fabrics or imported fabrics.”
No business without challenges, hence, Emuh has admonished entrepreneurs in the state to desist from mourning the fact that they don’t have outlets for their products. We know you have challenges and those challenges are those we’re beginning to address and tackle frontally by ensuring you have the critical competence to do your businesses and also the technical support required, with skills acquisition through entrepreneurship, he said.
He further told them, “If we established a unit like the UNIDO Centre/Export Initiative, you will agree with me that it is geared towards giving you the technical support that you required. Shimite is not going to give you cash if you’re requesting cash from her neither will government give you fund but government can use its funds to promote export in the non-oil area.” He therefore, enjoined the exporters to be steadfast in what they are doing for great result.
Okowa’s firm belief
Governor Okowa firmly believes that though his state rich with crude oil and gas but he doesn’t see the sector as employing higher number of the citizens because of the technical nature of oil companies. Therefore, he chose the path of skills acquisition and empowerment so that the mass of jobless youths in the state could become great entrepreneurs. With the UNIDO/Export Initiative on ground there’s high hopes not just for youth but for every Deltan who truly want to earn a living. The bottom line is that the governor is a believes that agriculture, agribusiness and agro-industrialisation is the way out of unemployment, and expected to be the backbone to the non-oil export sector
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