Coffee farmers in Nigeria will now have unfettered access to international private sector support and coffee quality improvement programmes, following the ratification of Nigeria’s membership of the International Coffee Organisation.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo on Wednesday, announced the ratification by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) after the 20th Virtual Cabinet meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja
Adeboye with the ratification, Nigeria coffee farmers will have opportunities to improve the yield of coffee that they grow and we’ll have access to objective and comprehensive information on world coffee market, with regular reports on market situation and economic studies to inform decision making.
The over one million Coffee farmers in Nigeria are also expected to have access to comprehensive statistical data of the world coffee trade and economy and the privilege of effective in the organisation’s meetings and activities.
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” Furthermore, we’ll have access to finance for our farmers, and all these things, we feel, are the things that will assist to improve the yield of coffee in Nigeria,” he said
“Coffee is presently growing across the country in various geopolitical zones and the number of people we have access, who are involved in the coffee value chain is up to one million people.
“So we believe that the membership of this organisation will increase the coffee yield and the number of people that will go into the coffee growing process and the coffee trade.
The ratification followed a memo presented by the Minister, to activate the International Coffee Agreement signed by Nigeria in 2008
“Up until now, Nigeria has not ratified this agreement and the result of not having ratified is that we’ve only had observer status in the organisation and unfortunately, there’s a lot of things that come with full membership that we’ve been meeting out from.
“However, now that Council has approved the ratification, some of the benefits that will come to the country will include allocation of coffee development projects, access to consultative fora on coffee sector finance, our farmers will have access to where they can raise funds to increase their farm yields.
He disclosed that Nigeria’s coffee farmers will have access to fora where producing and consuming countries can discuss key issues and difficulties relating to international coffee trade and development, as well as timely policies and solutions
“These means that we’ll be actively involved in creating policies that will improve the trade of coffee”
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