Nigeria spends $500m yearly on oil palm import

Nigeria currently spends about $500 million annually on oil palm imports, stakeholders in the agricultural sector have said.

The stakeholders who spoke on Thursday at a National Workshop on Oil Palm organised in Abuja by Solidaridad, an international NGO, agreed to partner to reduce the continued import of the commodity.

The Senior Climate Specialist for Africa at Solidaridad, Dr Samuel Ogallah, stated that Nigeria was not meeting its domestic demand for oil palm.

Ogallah who doubles as Country Technical Lead, Nigeria, said the $500 million the country spends annually shows there is huge gap in meeting the demand.

“In the early 1960s before the oil boom, Nigeria was exporting oil palm, but after that oil boom we started importing and all forms of oil palm are finding their way to the Nigerian market,” he said.

Ogallah said the workshop was for stakeholders to have a conversation around oil palm production in Nigeria, especially as it relates to producing oil palm in a changing climate.