Nigeria produces 400,000 metric tonnes of shea annually, which amounts to about 57 per cent of global supply of the commodity, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Edet Sunday Akpan, has said.
At the presentation of the draft Shea Policy Document held in Abuja, yesterday, he said shea is a commodity used in the production of shea butter, vegetable oil, soap and other cosmetic products.
Represented by the Ministry’s Director of Commodities and Products Inspectorate Department, Mrs. Omololu Ope-Ewe, the permanent secretary said over half of the total quantity produced was unaccounted for owning to poor postharvest handling, lack of modern processing equipment, low investment, and absence of innovation, research and development.
Mr. Akpan said the shea sector has been suffering from predominance of the sector by women and youth who lack capacity in terms of finance and technology to galvanise the sector for job and wealth creation for the country.
“As at today, we are far from deriving the maximum benefit in the shea sector of our economy. For us to turn the tide to our advantage, we must do the needful in terms of capacity development, technological development, research and innovations,” he said.
Presenting the Draft Shea Policy Document, the Managing Partner of Management Strategy Advisory Limited, Funmi Ilamah, said the biggest problem with the shea sector in Nigeria is poor quality and standards of the commodity.
Ilamah said only 10 per cent of the entire shea produced in Nigeria eventually gets to the international market despite Nigeria being one of the largest shea producers in the world.
