The Cocoa Processors Affiliation of Nigeria has expressed concern over the proposed 2024 export laws by the Nationwide Company for Meals and Drug Administration and Management.
Describing the proposed plan by the federal authorities as a sheer duplication of efforts and features of different authorities businesses, they predicted that the transfer would solely reach stifling the already burdened non-oil export sector, notably the cocoa processing trade.
Addressing a press briefing in Lagos on Friday to precise its worries over NAFDAC’s new export regulation for 2024, themed “NAFDAC’s New Export Rules 2024 Would Kill Our Enterprise with A number of Taxes – Save Our Enterprise and Nigeria’s Non-Oil Export,” the Chairman of the Cocoa Processors Affiliation of Nigeria (COPAN), Felix Oladunjoye, lamented that Nigeria is at the moment processing lower than 20,000 tonnes of its cocoa regardless of having the capability to course of over 250,000 tonnes if all of the factories had been up to the mark.
“Nigerian factories can course of all of the cocoa being produced in Nigeria, however solely 20,000 tonnes are at the moment being processed, so there’s a must declare a state of emergency on the nation’s cocoa trade. We’re dropping plenty of employment alternatives whereas many traders are wanting elsewhere to take a position as a result of the federal government of the day is irritating companies,” he mentioned.
He said that out of the 15 cocoa factories arrange in 1986, solely 4 factories are struggling to remain afloat, working at lower than 30 per cent of their put in capability because of the harsh enterprise terrain.
In the meantime, he warned that NAFDAC can not deal with the thousands and thousands of export transactions at the moment being recorded within the nation’s export sector.
“Already, cocoa processors are going through plenty of challenges of their operations, however NAFDAC is developing with a further burden to additional stifle the ailing cocoa processing trade.
“Non-oil exporters have taken the danger to take a position their billions to arrange cocoa processing outfits within the nation so as to add worth to our cocoa at the moment being exported uncooked.
“A mean processing manufacturing unit by at the moment’s market worth shouldn’t be lower than N60 billion to arrange gear, land, and equipment to course of cocoa.
“Out of over 15 cocoa factories which have been arrange since 1986, solely 4 factories are in operation, doing lower than 30 per cent of their capability because of the harsh enterprise working atmosphere within the nation,” he lamented.
In response to him, 80 per cent of the multinationals who invested within the sector have closed store, sustaining that mounting extra stress on the struggling cocoa trade would solely spell doom for Nigeria’s export market.
“We’re speaking of over N500 billion in investments tied up in equipment and gear losing away, with the unemployment price growing every day. Even at that, we pay heavy a number of taxes to the federal government.
“We’ve plenty of multinationals who’ve invested within the sector and over 80 per cent have closed store, however as Nigerians, we’ve got determined to take our destinies into our personal palms.
“We aren’t preventing for ourselves alone, however for all exporters within the non-oil sectors of the economic system. That is additionally to say that NAFDAC lacks the capabilities and capacities to undertake the testing of thousands and thousands of export transactions in Nigeria. That is an company that has just one laboratory in Lagos.
“From our expertise, if you apply for NAFDAC’s certification, it takes three months to get your items licensed. NAFDAC can also be not a part of the our bodies being recognised within the enterprise of issuing certification so far as cocoa is worried,” he pressured.
