National Secretary General, National Shea Butter Association, Mallam Adamu Modibo |
The National
Secretary General, National Shea Butter Association, Mallam Adamu Modibo has
said the processing of shea nuts into other processed derivatives and
exportable products is what can economically benefit the country and the entire
stakeholders at the value of the crop.
In an interview with Food Farm News, he said his association
has been able in partnership with Palm Oil Research Institute to establish a
research centre at Bida for the best agronomics practice of the crop which had
led to the reduction of the gestation period from 25years to 3-4 years. Read
the rest of his excerpts below.
Can you let us met you
and what your association is doing to ensure shea nuts growth in agriculture?
My name is
Adamu Umar Modibo, i am the National Secretary General of National Shea Butter
Association of Nigeria (NSBAN). The association is the fulcrum that brings
together all stakeholders in the shea industry together for unified economic
purpose. As the name implies, the product means a processing shea nuts into
butter, and also processing butter itself to a secondary products like creams -
the body creams, the hair creams, lips cream, palm creams and even massaging
creams. Part from these secondary products, the shea butter is also an edible
oil. Currently in my house that is what i use to fry and do cooking that
requires oil in it. What we promote greatly is the sale of processed shea nuts,
but not selling the nuts at a low premium price for a processed product to us.
We promote value addition through processing.
Actually that is where
i want to go as you will remember there was a conference last year on shea
butter that revealed the billions of dollar opportunity in the crop that we
have in abundance Nigeria. What is your association doing to tap dip in this
big economic opportunity in the global market?
Actually
what we are doing is to have aggregation centres, so that the shea nuts are
being given value addition through processing, so that we can create employment
because exporting raw shea nuts cannot really give maximum economic potentials
one can derive in the crop since raw exporting of shea nuts can only give less
money except the nuts are processed into other derivatives. Our security men
that over see the export of shea nuts do not see them as potential crop that
give government more revenue if well processed and packaged for export. But if the shea nuts are processed to butters,
there is more economic gains in terms of money and employment to people through
processors. That is why we are promoting the accept of processing and value
addition.
In other word, majorly
your association is out to promote the processing and marketing of shea
butters?
Yes, we
promote the production itself because it is sufficient production through best
agronomics practice that you can enhance the export of the product itself. If
you did produce, it means you are doing nothing. Our Association in
collaboration with National Oil Palm Research Institute in Benin have been able
to get a centre for shea nuts which had already been established in Bida for
improved production. This now enhance the maturity level of shea nuts from 25
years to 3-4yrs in a farm. In the wild, the circumstance that surround the
seeds will take about 25years for the seeds to mature, but the research institute
has been able to reduce the long period of gestation with modern scientific
method of planting and management to 3-4 years. I have seen with my eyes a
plant that has started fruiting at three years. The second scenario is the
plant in wild are not properly guided against being caught into fire wood and chal coal because the shea trees
have oil potential that can easily catch fire that will boil water under
fifteen minutes and it is our concern.
What effort are
association is your association making with government to achieve your desired
aims?
Actually we
are in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
(FMARD), Federal Ministry of Industry of Trade and Investment (FMITI) and other
agencies that have stake in agro commodities like Nigeria Export Promotion
Council ( NEPC) Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Nigeria
Investment Promotion Council ( NIPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other
international agencies like the one we had last year. Others are Nigeria Export
Import Bank (NEXIM) Bank of Industry ( BOI) and Bank of Agriculture ( BOA). All
of them feature in the conference with RMRDC and all of them contributed
financially for the success of the conference.
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