The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN) have secured a €300 million investment to revitalize Nigeria’s palm oil industry, targeting enhanced production and job creation.
According to Alphonsus Inyang, NPPAN president, the initiative will boost local palm oil production and generate over 300,000 jobs across the value chain. “The main purpose is to stimulate investments in the real sector and use technology to attract investors. For a long time, the oil palm industry in Nigeria has been stagnant,” he said.
The €300 million investment will focus on the oil palm value chain, including palm wine production, packaging, and the replanting of 30,000 hectares of new trees in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. A team of investors from 15 companies, primarily from Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, and Malaysia, visited these states in November 2024 for a nine-day tour to assess opportunities.
The palm wine business alone is projected to create 100,000 businesses for tappers, while the trunk business is expected to provide 200,000 additional jobs. Inyang highlighted that Cross River and Akwa Ibom States were selected for their significant population of smallholder farmers, the core target of UNIDO’s intervention.
On the global stage, Nigeria currently ranks fifth in palm oil production, with an annual output of 1.4 million metric tons, far behind Indonesia’s 50 million tons. Inyang called on the federal government to adopt a proposed model aimed at making Nigeria the third-largest palm oil producer in the world.
He emphasized the need for government support to increase local production, urging households to embrace palm oil cultivation. “We have the capacity, the market, and the largest population in Africa. Yet we cannot produce enough for ourselves,” he said, citing Ivory Coast as a net exporter despite being one-third the size of Nigeria.
Inyang warned that Nigeria’s reliance on imports from Malaysia and Indonesia poses risks and stressed the importance of looking inward to achieve self-sufficiency. “This could be the most ambitious and comprehensive program of government ever,” he concluded.
