Business

AfCFTA: Why Nigeria may lose out in agro-export to 1.2 billion consumers – Okakpu

Captain John T Okakpu,

Eyewitness reporter

The African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has the potential to lift millions of people out of poverty and end food insecurity on the Continent, but Nigeria has not been positioned as the ‘real’ stakeholder for agro-export under this agreement.

Captain John T Okakpu, MD/CEO, abx world Limited, dropped the hint over the weekend, stressing that the country’s participation and gain from AfCFTA, in the agricultural value chain, depends on the effectiveness and implementation of government policies, especially in the agricultural sector.

He said that AfCFTA will form a 3.4 trillion dollars economic bloc, which Nigeria cannot afford to be out.

Available reports show that trade between African nations in agricultural products as a percentage of Africa’s total agricultural trade remains below 20 percent long, one of the lowest in any region.

Total trade between African nations was only 2 percent in the period 2015–2017, compared with 67 percent in trade between European countries, 61 percent in Asian countries, and 47 percent in the Americas, according to UN trade agency UNCTAD.

“Now, AfCFTA intends to change the narrative. It has created the world’s largest free trade area, representing the 1.2 billion consumer market, and mandates states to remove tariffs and non-tariff in order to boost shipments and services between nations, and boost economic growth in doing so”

“If you look at the trend, Africa exports agricultural products such as tomatoes, onions, vegetables, cocoa, coffee, cotton, yam tobacco, and spices to the nations of the world to earn significant foreign exchange.

” But the continent imports important foods such as cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products and meat in large quantities. Now, our neighbouring countries have positioned themselves to benefit from AfCFTA by building robust logistics and cost-effective export systems.

“So, looking at it critically, our logistics cost cemented our losses on AfCFTA unless we address it now”, Capt. Okakpu said.

Capt. Okakpu, who chairs a 28-member Nigeria Agro Set-Up Committee inaugurated by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), with a mandate to reinvigorate broad national agricultural activities across the country, added that capacity building for farmers, regulators and top government officials is another major factor that must be considered for the country to get her acts together.

He said that the most basic of agro-export requirements is the knowledge of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) which is completely missing in Nigeria.

“In addition to other benefits, it teaches and equips farmers on standard Farming Bookkeeping which helps farmers know, track and compare total costs of farm inputs and inflows from sales and in so doing help to maximize their profitability.

“As it is now, we will continue exporting our products to the world market through another country and definitely will get worse under AfCFTA.

“For every N1 we are going to make, those countries our products are transiting will be making N10. There’s no shortcut here or lobbying, it’s a grass-root, that grassroot is the farmers with Certifications/Traceability of their farms and products.

“That notwithstanding, knowledge of GAP enables farmers to increase their yields per hectare by employing the latest, world-class and more efficient farming techniques.

“Similarly, farmers who have Global GAP certifications and training are automatically linked to off-takers who buy off their agricultural farm produce right from the farm gate at international market rates, thus saving most farmers from losses derived from low sales and prices that ultimately lead to loan defaults.

“The regulators and other government officials also need to be informed on why cost should be reduced; on why farmers deserve cost-effective interest loans; why the logistics value chain must be rejigged if we are going to benefit from AfCFTA,” he said.

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Business

Access bank laments cargo glut, financial losses to importers caused by its service glitch

– restores customs transactions on its platform

Gloria Odion

Access Bank Plc has expressed its regret over the accrued demurrages to importers, cargo glut at the port which the temporary disruption of its services on its ACCESS PAY(B’Odogwu) platform has caused majority of importers and their agents.

The bank’s interactive platform with Customs went down for three days between November 10th to 12th, 2025, causing agony and anguish among the freight forwarders who could not conduct transactions on the platform with the Customs, resulting to mounting demurrages and cargo glut at the port.

However in a statement made available to newsmen, the bank confirmed the restoration of its customs transaction services and urged its distraught custom to come forward with their Customs payment.

Access bank further explained that the glitch occured due to a connectivity issue between Access Bank’s network and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) system.

The glitch temporarily hindered the processing of payments and related transactions via the ACCESS PAY (B’ODOGWU) platform.

“The issue was fully resolved on November 12th, 2025, and normal service operations have since been completely restored.

“Customers can now process Customs-related payments and transactions seamlessly through Access Bank channels,” the statement read.

The bank expressed regret over the inconvenience caused, acknowledging that the downtime led to delays and concerns among customers, particularly regarding demurrage charges.

Access Bank assured stakeholders that proactive measures have been put in place to prevent a recurrence, reiterating its commitment to service reliability and customer satisfaction.

“Access Bank appreciates the patience and understanding of its customers during the period of disruption and thanks them for their continued trust and partnership,” the statement concluded.

However, despite the service restoration by the bank, its customers are still aggrieved over what they described as unwarranted extra charges in form of accrued demurrages which they were made to incur and which they claimed have added additional costs to the clearing of their trapped cargo at the port.

Business

Tantita Security dazzles at OTC, USA

– as Lokpobiri seeks global presence of the company

Gloria Odion

The Tantita Security Nigeria Limited has dazzled the participants at the

Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) held in the United States of America (USA) with array of its cutting edge services which it showcased at the annual event.

Curious participants flooded the stand of the security company, obviously impressed by its technology – driven services.

It could be recalled that the company currently carries out surveillance on the network of oil pipelines in Nigeria which has improved the security at the critical oil infrastructure and boosted the country’s oil production.

An elated Executive Director, Technical and Operations of the security company, Capt. Warredi Enisouh enthused “Nigeria have never been seen in this light here.

” We are currently overwhelmed and swarmed with people who want to hear our story,” he noted.

However, the President of Ijaw Youth Council, Jonathan Lokpobiri, called on Tantita Security to extend its services outside the shores of Nigeria, even as he commended the company for its laudable strides at the global event.

Lokpobiri visited the Tantita Security Nigeria Limited stand at the event and said there was a need for the company to extend its services to the other parts of the globe.

“This is the stand of Tantita Security Nigeria Limited at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference in America, we want to see Tantita in China, we want to see Tantita in Europe and in other African countries.

“As long as security is concerned, Tantita Security Nigeria Limited should be consulted.

Speaking further he said, “From what I have seen on ground here, all the gadgets, and the slides of how the company carries out its operations, I have no doubts at all of the capacity and capability of the company to deliver, especially when you take into consideration what they have done back in Nigeria.

“They have been able to drastically increase Nigeria’s oil production through effective monitoring and policing the country’s oil pipelines and other oil facilities,” he said.

Business

“You lied” – FG lambasts cement manufacturers over hike in product price

Ahmed Dangiwa

The Eyewitness reporter

The Federal Government has picked holes in the reasons proffered by the cement manufacturers for the sudden jump in the price of the product.

It could be recalled that a few days ago, cement recorded an astronomical increase in price as the 50kg of the essential building materials climbed from N5000 to between N10,000 to N15,000, depending on the location in the country.

Concerned by the sudden hike, which has elicited uproar among already depressed Nigerians, the Federal government summoned the major cement manufacturers and other merchants of building materials in the country such as Dangote Cement, BUA and Lafarge, to an emergency meeting.

Addressing the manufacturers at the meeting, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, dismissed the reasons given by the cement manufacturers, describing them as untenable.

Whereas the manufacturers blamed the cost of gas and mining equipment for the hike, Dangiwa said key input materials for cement production such as limestone, clay, silica sand, and gypsum, sourced within the nation’s borders, should not be dollar-rated.

He said the price of gas that manufacturers are using as an excuse was not tenable because gas is a raw material found within the country.

The minister further declared that the excuse of an increase in mining equipment should not come up because equipment bought by the manufacturers has been used for decades and not purchased every day.

He however threatened that the federal government may be forced to throw open the borders and allow importation of cement to flood the Nigerian market in a bid to crash the prices of the community should the manufacturers refuse to reduce their prices.

He warned that the cement manufacturers should not push the government into taking this decision which he believed would push them out of business.

The minister said the border was closed to the importation of cement to help local manufacturers.

However, he noted that if the government decides to open the border for mass importation, prices of cement would crash and local manufacturers would be gravely affected.

The minister, who called on the manufacturers to be more patriotic, said BUA Cement, for instance, has been willing and is still willing as at the last time he spoke with them, to crash the price of their cement, lower than the N7000, N8000 agreed by the manufacturers and he sees no reason why the others should not do same.

“The challenges you speak of, many countries are facing the same challenges and some even worse than that but as patriotic citizens, we have to rally around whenever there is a crisis to change the situation.

“The gas price you spoke of, we know that we produce gas in the country. The only thing you can say is that maybe it is not enough.

“Even if you say about 50 percent of your production cost is spent on gas prices, we still produce gas in Nigeria. It’s just that some of the manufacturers take advantage of the situation.

“As for the mining equipment that you mentioned, you buy equipment and it takes years and you are still using it,” he said.

Earlier, Group Chief Commercial Officer of Dangote Cement, Rabiu Umar blamed the high cost of gas and mining equipment for the hike in cement price.

He said: “It is safe to say we are all Nigerians and we are all facing the current head weight that is happening. I would like to speak on the popular belief that most of the raw materials to produce cement are available locally.

“While we have limestone and in some cases, we have gypsum and some cases coal, the reality is that it takes a lot of forex-related items to produce cement.