REASON'S Why Nigerian Products Are Rejected In Foreign Countries

Olusegun Aganga, the minister of industry, trade and investment, announced that 103 Nigerian products exported abroad in the last five years have been rejected for not meeting international quality standards.

He explained that lack of standard testing laboratories is the cause of the products’ rejection.

The minister said: “We all say we want to diversify the economy with a view to increasing our income from non-oil products. But there is no way we can achieve this without having quality infrastructure such as the laboratory.For instance, we could not export yam to the United Kingdom because we do not have a laboratory to test it here. Those who export products in Nigeria take them to Ghana to test them and the credit goes to Ghana.In the last five years, Nigeria has more than 103 rejects. If you compare that to other African countries like South African and Ghana, who only have between six to seven rejects, our is unacceptable.”

The minister said that the problem of food quality and safety either for domestic consumption or for exportation requires serious attention. Nigeria like many other countries faces the challenge of providing an adequate food supply for its teeming population. Policies and programmes aimed at boosting agricultural and food production are being actively promoted, he claimed.

However, he noted that the current administration has set up an internationally accredited laboratory in Lagos.

A World Bank report had estimated that developing countries will lose about $6.9 billion by 2015 to rejections ‎of their exported food items.

Aganga added that the standards organisation of Nigeria has played a key role in Nigeria’s drive towards the diversification of its economy by ensuring that goods produced in the country meet the standard and quality requirements.

The director general of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Joseph Odumodu, said the organisation has been transformed and repositioned to deliver its mandate.

According to him:”In the last four years, we have progressively repositioned the organisation both in terms of personnel, physical infrastructure and legislation to the economic diversification of NigeriaWe have remodelled the leaking edifice, upgraded the physical laboratory structure and facility in lekki leading to the accreditation, renovated and upgrade of the Enugu mechanical laboratory and also constructed a 4 storey laboratory edifice in Lagos.”

The globalization of trade has focused its attention on strengthening food quality control measures to ensure quality and safety especially on imported foods. Different countries have specific regulations, legislation, guidelines and acts, which are considered necessary to be implemented and complied with by food industries when they process their products. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the established standards, legislation and enforcement programmes are kept by the food industry to ensure food quality and safety. In Nigeria, the responsibilities for regulating and monitoring food safety standards and practices devolve on the following government organizations and agencies:

    National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC)
    Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON)
    Federal Ministry of Health
    National Codex Committee
    Federal Ministry of Agriculture
    States and Local Government

According to the latest information, the United States Agency for International Development has disclosed plans to support the country’s non-oil sector with a special fund of $3m (N606.6m) following calls for increased investment in the sector in the face of falling crude oil prices.

A statement said that a $3m special fund tagged ‘Product Development Fund’, has been made available by USAID for operators along the Lagos-Kano-Jibiya ‘LAKAJI’ Corridor Development Project to access under specific guidelines and through a transparent process.

It stated: “Efforts to diversify the economy will soon yield result as the Federal Government through the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan has identified 13 National Strategic Export Products that will replace oil while it will be supported by two key NEPC initiatives – the One State One Product and Nigerian Diaspora Export Programme.The NSEPs are grouped under three categories: agro industrial products – including palm oil, cocoa, sugar, rice and cashew; mining-related products such as cement, iron ore and metals, auto parts and cars and aluminum, and thirdly, oil and gas industrial products – including petroleum products, fertilizer and urea, petrochemical and menthol.”