The Senate, on Tuesday, considered a critical bill that would shore-up the country’s foreign exchange earnings, as well as foster the diversification of the Nigerian economy from the exportation of Shea.
The bill which scaled second reading during plenary also seeks to establish the National Shea Development Council.
Sponsored by Senator Muhammad Enagi Bima (APC, Niger South) said the intent behind the move to establish the Council was to “provide guidance on the entire Shea sector by establishing National Shea Development Council for the restoration of the degraded Shea parklands including off-reserve forests, the establishment of more Shea parklands across Shea belt, promotion of the Shea value chain, job creation and empowerment of rural women in Nigeria.
Leading debate on the bill, Senator Bima said, “Mr. President, Distinguished Colleagues, Nigeria is blessed with abundant natural resources including a number of cash crops. These include cassava, cashew, Shea, cotton, cocoa, oil palm, rubber among others. The value chains for these crops if developed, can generate a lot of employment. Of all these crops, the Shea tree has been one of the most neglected.
“The Shea tree known as “Vitallavia Paradoxa” is an important economic tree that plays a vital role as a sustainable means of livelihood for thousands of households across 22 States in Nigeria with over 3 million rural women engaged in Shea business. Nigeria is at present responsible for 62 percent (approximately 370,000 Metric Tonnes Per Annum) of global Shea nut production estimated at 600,000 Metric Tonnes.”
According to the lawmaker, Nigeria presently is not just the leading producer of raw Shea nuts globally, but also the nation with the largest stock of Shea trees in parklands.
“The Shea sector with the proper organisation and investment can support government effort to diversity the economy,” he said.
Bima added that, “the present global annual demand for Shea is valued at about $4 billion and is projected to be over $10 billion by 2030.
“The main benefits of Shea to Nigeria include foreign exchange earnings, Women Empowerment, source of income generation, wealth creation, lives enhancement, food security, employment generation, rural infrastructure development, industrialization, reduction of deforestation and forest degradation, reduction in carbon emission and climate change mitigation.”
The lawmaker also underscored the need for the use of technology in the business, stressing that, the traditional manual method “is time-consuming, physically exhausting and extremely labor intensive, requiring large quantities of water and fuel wood often carried from long distances.”
He added that the Shea Development Council when established, would bring immense development to communities engaged in the Shea sector.
Bima listed the functions of the council to include: drawing policy guidelines and programmes on the Shea sector development; developing Shea parklands and monitor landscape restoration across the Shea belt in the country; establish a dedicated Shea Research Institute for Shea research and development; and advise on the adaptation of machinery and processes for the Shea value chain.
Others are to domesticate the entire Shea value chain by encouraging and enforcing pre-export Shea value addition to create more jobs; and support rural women clusters engaged in Shea business in Nigeria and advise on any other matter which is aimed at enhancing the objectives of the Council.
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Contributing, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia (APC, Jigawa North East) said Shea production and exportation in Nigeria, as with other cash crops such as coca, groundnut among others, have been neglected to the detriment of local producers.
“Mr. President, outside the obvious benefits in terms of diversifying our non-oil exports, I think the issue of Shea butter production in Nigeria is a case study of one of the many products where we have immense potential, but for one reason or the other we have neglected it to the detriment of the local producers,” he said.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, after the bill scaled second reading, referred the same to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development for further legislative work.
The Committee which is Chaired by Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC, Nasarawa West) was given four (4) week to report back to the Upper Chamber.
Meanwhile, the Senate also on Tuesday passed three bills for concurrence during plenary.
They are: Environmental Health Officers (Registration, etc) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021; Counseling Practitioners (Establishment) Bill, 2021; and FCT Health Insurance Agency (Establishment) Bill, 2021.
The three bills were sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (APC, Kebbi North).