NEPC to Train 600 Farmers in Shea Butter Production

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) on Wednesday said it would train no fewer than 600 farmers in quality Shea butter production to enhance its export value.

The Director-General of the council, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Awolowo said the training would increase the value of Shea butter in the export market.

“The major challenge with us is the quality of some of our exported products but we are concluding plans to put an end to that very soon.

“What we are doing is that we are trying to increase the quality of our exported products and we have seen that some of our products are even on the shelves in the United Kingdom, USA, and other European countries.

“Talking about the European Partnership Agreement for instance, we will be able to benefit from it, if we take our industrialisation serious, we can also export quality products.

“For instance, we are preparing to train not less than 600 women farmers in quality shea butter production from the Shaki Area of Oyo State.

“The training will serve as one of the ways by which we add value to our local products by exporting finished products and not just in their crude form,” he said.
Awolowo also said the private sector was a major stakeholder in the industrialisation of the country as they could do better in terms of investment.

He said t trainings would begin for sesame seeds and moringa oil production soon.
The NEPC director-general had in November said that the nation could rake in $1.6 trillion from non-oil exports within the next five years.

Awolowo said the government had evolved 30 new export markets within Nigeria which could make the nation attain a 7.1 annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and a financial base of $1.6 trillion.