Poor infrastructure has been identified as one of the major barriers to agricultural trade within and outside Nigeria.
An Associate Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers Nigeria, Taiwo Oyaniran, while speaking at an AfCFTA workshop organised by the National Action Committee on African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement stated that Nigeria had significantly poor transport infrastructure and services, particularly in the rural areas.
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According to him, the lack of cold chain logistics also contributes to a decreased trade capacity through losses from spoilage and impact on time to reach the market.
He noted that Information and Communications Technology and e-commerce infrastructure play a critical role in the availability of market information and rapidity of reaction.
Oyaniran said despite recent improvements in the state and quality of digital and telecommunications technologies, ICT infrastructure in Nigeria still required significant improvement to enable trade efficiency.
He identified bottlenecks at the seaports as one of the factors affecting cross-border trade.
He said, “Nigeria’s six seaports are limited by capacity constraints and aging infrastructure.
“In addition to this, customs and border administration processes are relatively inefficient, with multiple bottlenecks.
“These negatively impact the cost, and the ease and efficiency of cross-border trade.”
Highlighting the state of agriculture and agribusiness in Nigeria, he noted that Africa’s food import bill stood at about $35bn in 2016 and it is expected to rise to $110bn by 2025.
In addition, Oyaniran explained that Africa’s agribusiness sector was projected to reach $1tn in 2025, driven by the continent’s rapidly growing middle class.
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