Nigeria expects to earn $8bn annually from yam export

The Federal Government has estimated about $8 billion earnings from the export of yams to other countries if the yam export programme succeeds.
 
Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who gave this indication when he received the Technical Committee on Nigeria Yam Export Programme in Abuja recently said the initiative would enable the country to diversify foreign exchange earnings from the oil and gas sector.

According to him, Ghana is exporting yams but Nigeria is not, yet Nigeria accounts for 61 per cent of the world yam production. “This programme has to succeed; we must sell whatever we produce to the world because we are buying too much. We allowed ourselves to be deceived.

“I saw figures of Ghana’s earning from yam export and their targets for the future and it was quite impressive. If Ghana can aim at a few billion dollars a year from yams, there is no reason why Nigeria cannot quadruple that. I want this committee to begin to engage team of engineers anywhere in the world. Can we design a plough that can make the yam heap?

“We have to mechanise heap making otherwise, in the next five years, because of our aging farmers, you will find out that we do not have yams again and we will get into fresh troubles,” he said.

Simon Irtwange, Chairman of the committee, disclosed that the committee has prepared a four-year action plan for the yam value chain programme in the country and is working closely with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to train farmers and improve yam varieties.

“We have standards that we are following and they have to do with pytho-sanitary requirements to meet international standards. We have combined the standards of Ghana and Nigeria to make sure our yams are not rejected at the international markets,” he said.

The committee is made up of representatives from Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), among others.


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