Nigeria's hope of witnessing export-driven economic growth through air cargo remains a far cry, as the sector's share of total trade volume appears abysmal.
This is coming against the backdrop of the country's inability to facilitate more export by air despite the availability of goods in the country.
For instance, Nigeria was only able to process goods for exports valued at N34 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, Q4'22, an increase of nine per cent when compared to N31 billion recorded in Q3'22.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Foreign Trade in Goods Statistic for Q4'22, the country also witnessed a significant decline of 11 per cent in inbound cargo at N245 billion recorded in Q4'22 from N271 billion in Q3'22.
A breakdown of the development shows that domestic export stood at N30 billion, while re-exports were N4.404 billion in Q4'22.
On month on month, Nigeria recorded the least export in October, 2022, which stood at N7.8 billion. The export rose significantly to N12 billion in November, and later dropped to N11 billion in the last month of 2022.
According to the ranking of the top 10 posts/ports of operation, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, came fourth, transported goods valued at 30.05bn, while Abuja airport occupied the last position with trade valued at N2.25 billion.
For import, MMA airlifted N149.4 billion worth of goods, with a 2.79 per cent share value of Nigeria's total imports in the period under review. Kano airport which was also part of the top 10 posts/ports of operation, recorded a total of N49.4 billion or 0.92 per cent total share value.
Meanwhile, Vanguard Aviation World gathered that the development has negatively impacted the country's move to improve cargo export contribution.
It will be recalled that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, last year set up three sub-committees on Airports, Cargo and Export to drive the agenda of making Nigeria rank the first country with the largest tonnage of cargo from its aerodromes in Africa.
Sequel to the country's mandate, the committee members embarked on a tour to organisations involved in the cargo business.
Speaking during the tour, the coordinator of the committee, Ikechi Uko stated that their target is to create more businesses and improve the processes and grow the volume.
"We believe aviacargo will be addressed and Nigeria will be number one globally. To achieve this, we need to know the challenges and how to address them holistically.
"We want to grow Nigeria's export in a way that our growth rate will surpass other countries, starting from the short term (one month), mid-term (six months) and long term (three years)."
On his part, the Group Managing Director, NAHCO Plc, Indranil Gupta, expressed optimism about Nigeria increasing its volume of agriproduce within the shortest available time and spoke emphatically on the need for Nigeria to target Africa as a huge potential market.
"In terms of potential and in terms of perspective from the importers, Nigeria has a huge potential. But in terms of requirements, all of us are impacted by the current account deficit and the imbalance between imports and export. And the fact that exports are heavily dependent on petrol chemical.
"Nigeria needs to look within to see what we can export to the larger global consumer base but also within Africa. The very key one is within Africa. If we just look at our neighbourhood, the Francophone countries, almost all of them are 99 per cent dependent on imports and imports which are primarily done from Europe and America.
"And a lot of those imports which are about 40 per cent to 50 per cent are being created in Nigeria in excess. So, the Nigerian economy, and Nigerian manufacturers have a lot to contribute to the immediate neighbourhood and the larger continent as well.
"We have to enable and expose the manufacturers, the growers, the farmers to this opportunity. And once they are aware of this opportunity, we need to extend the functionality of the state and industry to get together to create the right policies and right infrastructure, which will then enable this trade to happen.
"Nigeria needs to take advantage of all the policies made to enhance trade in Africa, including that of ECOWAS, African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCTA) and others.
"So, in terms of those policies, they are available. What we now should look at in terms of Nigeria's Federal Government, we should look at micro policies, what can enable or what can incentivize the industry to fill up those gaps. This is a gap no doubt. The gap is 1:9 in terms of imports.
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"Let's say manufactured products in Nigeria and exported outside, be it agro products, perishables, cashew, etc, have been severely exploited. But there are others which are not that well organised. For example, yam, Ugu leaves, Shea butter. I know 65 per cent of oil consumption is done from Shea butter, which originates from Nigeria."
"But how much of that is sent out through Nigeria's export terminals? And how much of that is moved through other means into neighbouring countries and exported from there, is something which will give us an idea as to where we need to work in terms of policy and infrastructure creation," he added.
He said NAHCO was doing a lot of work with Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) under the guidance of FAAN, remarking that the Managing Director of FAAN was right in saying that the committee should draw up an action plan which has a list of items to be done in one month, a quarter, or six months."
