Sunday 14 April 2019

HOW GRIDLOCK AT THE LAGOS PORTS IS INHIBITING $300M CASHEW NUTS EXPORTS

From the Nigeria Cashew Exporters Association came yet another saddening news, about one of the contradictions that define the Nigerian nation: the kidney-shaped nuts from last year’s harvest, that should have been exported since January, are still stranded at the ports! http://www.tectono-business.com/2016/02/contemporary-step-by-step-guide-to.html Shipping of the nuts has been delayed due to the gridlock at the Lagos ports.

President of the association, Tola Fasheru, who made this known, said about 50,000 tons of the nuts valued at about $300million are still in containers on trucks waiting to enter the ports or wharves. According to Fasheru, “there is a palpable lack of synergy among the port operators and this is affecting the business of our members.”

Hmmm!!! Folks, let us say the truth and shame the devil. Many Nigerian non-oil products exporters have been defrauded of huge amount of money in the process of exporting agricultural commodities and solid minerals to foreign countries. Do you know why? They were not trained on export operations, management, documentations and the best methods of payment in export trade. This is terrible!!! Nigerians cannot continue to lose money to foreigners in the course of export business. Exporters, would you like to keep on being scammed? Why don’t you get a practical manual that explains the stages of export trade from processing and packaging of commodities to receipt of payment by the foreign buyers? It explains export operations, export management, export documentations and methods of payment in export trade? Yes, it is a contemporary step-by-step guide to export trade. It tells all the contemporary dynamics in export trade. To get it, click on the link below:
http://www.tectono-business.com/2016/02/contemporary-step-by-step-guide-to.html

It is regrettable that a country whose government is daily making clarion calls about diversification of its revenue base could allow a thing like this to happen. One would have thought that such a country would leave nothing to chance in its efforts to get additional income from other sources, instead of relying solely on crude oil, with its attendant vagaries at the international market. It is akin to a situation where the government is calling on Nigerians to go into farming for exports and yet is not giving them enough encouragement.

Expectedly, this experience is already having demoralising effects on the cashew exporters, especially as they have had to default on their contractual agreements with their foreign buyers who are now walking away from them to do business with their counterparts from more serious countries. http://www.tectono-business.com/2016/02/contemporary-step-by-step-guide-to.html More worrisome is that the situation is going to make a mess of meeting the output target of 260,000 tons of the nuts for the current season (February to July).

Fasheru made the point when he said that “not one single cashew exporter is in the field now as he owes on contracts and as a result has no money to operate with”.  This sad experience also has the danger of making the planned raising of the annual production output to 500,000 tons by 2023 a mission impossible for the country, the sixth largest cashew producer.

The gridlock and inefficiency, as well as corruption and other vices at the nation’s ports keep having deleterious effects on virtually all sectors of the economy. We wonder how many other groups or bodies are passing through what the cashew exporters are experiencing at the ports in silence. http://www.tectono-business.com/2016/02/contemporary-step-by-step-guide-to.html

We therefore call on the Federal Government, once again, to expedite action on its efforts to bring efficiency back to the ports. We can only imagine what the country has lost to the present state of affairs at the ports – not just in terms of economic costs but also environmental pollution and social dislocations. Nigeria is probably one of the few countries where the ports could have suffered such a long period of neglect, leading to this monumental crisis that we now have in our hands. It is this crisis that has led to importers finding ports in neighbouring countries like Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic, among others, more attractive to do business, at a huge cost to the country’s economy.

Fellow Nigerians, are you aware that our crude oil will soon become useless? Yes, it will, in no distant time, become valueless owing to the fact that the countries that rely on it as their only source of energy are developing more affordable alternative sources of energy. When this finally happens, what will we do? How are we currently preparing for this imminent economic doom? Which other sector will continue to stabilize our economy? Nigerians, the only solution is developing the agricultural sector. In fact, this is the only solution. Very soon, the major source of revenue will become agriculture and agro-exports. How are you positioning yourself to play big in agro-export business? Why don’t you get a practical manual that explains the stages of export trade from processing and packaging of commodities to receipt of payment by the foreign buyers? Yes, arm yourself with the contemporary trends in export trade. This manual explains export operations, export management, export documentations and methods of payment in export trade? Yes, it is a contemporary step-by-step guide to export trade. It tells all the contemporary dynamics in export trade. To get it, click on the link below:

We have said it before; and it bears restating: that Lagos ports are inadequate to cater to the country’s needs. http://www.tectono-business.com/2016/02/contemporary-step-by-step-guide-to.html So, the government must redouble efforts to make ports in other parts of the country functional. This will lead to more efficiency at the Lagos ports, relieve Lagos roads of the large number of heavy duty vehicles that are daily shortening the lifespan of the roads apart from causing a nightmare to pedestrians and motorists in the state. The government would also do well to accelerate its rail development programme so that much of the cargo now moved by road could be transported by rail to their respective destinations.

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