By BUKOLA LONGE
Despite its vast agricultural potential, Nigeria is losing an estimated 40 million metric tonnes of food worth over N5 trillion every year, exposing a deep crisis in the country’s food value chain and worsening hunger, inflation and food insecurity.
Stakeholders in the nation’s transport and supply chain industries raised the alarm over the compounding crises crippling Nigeria’s logistics sector at a recent gathering in Lagos.
According to the stakeholders, the enormous losses are driven largely by poor logistics, inadequate storage infrastructure, weak transportation networks and inconsistent government policies.
The alarming development means that while millions of Nigerians struggle daily to afford basic food items, huge volumes of farm produce perish before reaching markets.
Speaking at the 10th Anniversary lecture of City Business News, themed: “Logistics as the Engine Room of Nigeria’s Economy”, the former Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Boboye Oyeyemi, said the numerous challenges facing the logistics sector have triggered high cost of products in the country.
“The financial consequences of these logistics failures are immense. Post-harvest logistics failures result in an estimated annual financial drain of $2.3 billion to $3.3 billion, which translates to a massive N3.5 trillion to N5 trillion loss to the Nigerian economy every single year”.
According to him, the logistics sector currently contributes a paltry 3.73 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), adding that the most devastating fallout of this underperformance is felt in the agricultural supply chain, where poor infrastructure translates directly into wasted food.
Oyeyemi said the infrastructure deficiency is posing a serious setback to food security, noting that a staggering 30 to 40 million metric tonnes of food are lost annually to post-harvest wastage, meaning that up to 40 per cent of all farm produce is eroded before ever reaching a retail shelf.
“The middle belt is the food basket of the nation. To move goods from the middle belt to Lagos about 40 per cent of them rots away”.
Beyond infrastructure, he said transport operators are battling exorbitant operational costs, driven by a spike in diesel prices and predatory local actor demands.
Oyeyemi lamented the burden of multiple taxation on the roads, pointing out that “drivers spend between N150,000 – N250,000 on an average trip” just dealing with checkpoints and extortions.
To combat the menace threatening the sector, Oyeyemi urged the government to reduce illegal road checkpoints.
He enjoined government to aggressively subsidise Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), encourage a dual energy system (Petrol and gas) in vehicles, so