Anthony Areh
Onion Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (OPMAN) on Thursday inaugurated documented onion export through Illela land border in Sokoto state.
Launching the programme, Mr Abdulrahameed Ma’aji, the Area Controller of Nigerian Custom Service (NCS) in charge of Sokoto and Zamfara states urged producers and marketers to utilize the opportunity for enhanced production and trading.
Ma’aji commended President Muhammadu Buhari for reopening the land borders for legitimate businesses and lauded the efforts of Comptroller General of NCS, Retired Col. Hameed Ali, for keeping with international best practices in Customs responsibilities.
He described onion as commodity with vast potentialities that could attract foreign investors and create employment opportunities along with enhance domestic value for consumption and industries.
He said NCS work with stipulated laws and guidelines to enhance trades and encouraged indigenous individuals and groups to cue into exports for national economic growth.
” Despite COVID-19 Pandemic, NCS provided advance solutions to public that will aid continued reliable and quality service delivery for sustainability of global trade” Ma’aji said.
Speaking at the occasion, the National Preseident of OPMAN, Aliyu Maitasamu, said onion is an important vegetable crop whose distinctive flavor and medicinal content is appreciated by people throughout the world.
Maitasamu noted that there is no household that does not consume onion as it is being use as bulbs, onion powder, soil and others which serve as raw material in the production of Maggi, ketchup, noodles, seasoning, onion oil, onion jam, flakes by various food industries.
He explained that onion is used for pharmaceutical products, because of it many possible health benefits which include management of obesity, heart disease and cancer, which are prevalent in our society today due to its high vitamins, mineral and antioxidants content.
The President said based on the foregoing, the union resolve to join hands with all onion exporters across the nation and take advantage of the Federal Government efforts towards the diversification of the nation’s economy.
According to him, no fewer than 2,000 marketers engaged in the the businesses while thousands engaged on its farming and other associated businesses.
” In line with the Federal Government plan to diversify the economic and create jobs, the union in conjunction with a sister bodiea in West and Central Africa developed onion recovery plan which will target an average steady growth of 20 percent each year from 2020 to 2026.
” Nigeria is among the 10 top onion exporting countries in the world and with competitive advantage of production being the largest onion producing country in sub-Saharan Africa, which produces 1.4 million metric tonne annually.
” With the present arrangement, Nigeria will continuously export onions to Niger Republic, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Mali, Cote d’ivoire and others with more expanding opportunities,” Maitasamu said.
He added that with the commencement of documented export of onion and onion products the commodity has the capacity to contribute greatly to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), encourage repatriation of forex back to Nigeria and other value chain in the global map of onion exporting countries.
