EMPOWERING THE NATIONAL QUALITY COUNCIL TO BUILD TRUST FOR NIGERIA’S TRADE

BACKGROUND

Safety standards are a critical component of agricultural products exports. To this degree, they serve as either barriers or catalysts for domestic and international trade in produce. For Nigeria, safety standards have been more of a barrier than a catalyst. Without a robust infrastructure, countries and territories are crowded out of the opportunities provided by globalisation and trade policies like Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

In 2015, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) banned Nigeria’s dried Beans export as it contained between 0.3mg per kg and 4.6mg per kg of Dichlorvos pesticide. To put this in context, the 1 maximum acceptable residue limit is 0.01mg per kg. This has come at significant cost to the country, as it is reported to lose $362.5m annually in export income from the ban. According to an official of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), 30 percent of Nigerian exports were rejected due to poor branding, labelling and packaging. This shows the weight of the challenge of maintaining a healthy trust for trade through a robust national quality policy.