I hate to be the one to burst your bubble if you have been grinning from molar to molar, celebrating Pa Audu's "incredible feat" of exporting 72 tonnes of yam to the US and UK. I watched the report on AIT. Nicely packaged yam, in lovely cartons. I was tempted to celebrate Pa Audu for this achievement. Then I ran the numbers.
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According to the May 2017 report by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, 1kg of yam goes for N256. This means that 72 tonnes of yam would have a street value of N18 million. Do the math. Forget that this is less than 50% of the volume of trade on a good day in Katsina Ala(Zaki-Biam) yam market every week. Anyway, the yam was well packed, and then freighted to the US and UK. Lets us assume than the packaging and freighting costed N3 million (and it might be a lot more, given that yam is heavy). So we have about N15 million net worth of yamk (18 - 3 = 15). Assuming we sell it at twice the price, we would make a profit of N15 million. Again, let us assume that we did not incur additional cost in the transaction. So, here is the summary: we exported 72 tonnes of yam, and made N15 million. Good business, good profit.
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Now this is where I am going with this: if 72 tonnes of yam is processed to pharmaceutical grade starch, (PGS) (that is the major component of tablets and capsules), we will get about 9.7 tonnes of pure PGS. I am a pharmacist, I know. Depending on your source, pharmaceutical grade starch goes for anywhere from $20 - 40/kg in the international market. And you can google this up. Pa Audu's 72 tonnes of yam is therefore worth a princely N102 million if it was processed to PGS (assuming it is sold for $30/kg, just to be conservative). So, N18 million worth of yam, processed to N102 million, profit of about 84 million.
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The question is, has Audu made N15 million or lost N84 million?
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Imagine, for instance, that Benue State was interested in setting up a starch production plant in Katsina Ala (Zaki-Biam). Would we need to export 72 tonnes of starch to make N15 million, instead of making 84 million? And this is a state that makes a pitiable IGR of N250 million per month. The same Benue produces arguably half of the oranges in the country but there is no single fruit juice making industry in the state. This is not about Benue.
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Nigeria produces 50 million metric tonnes of cassava annually, 20% of world production according to FAO, but what do we do with it? We convert it to fufu and eat. Zero percent is processed to PGS or other value-added products. If only half of it is processed to PGS, we would be making N35 billion per annum in sales. Again, open Excel and do the math.
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So we have Audu exporting yam, exporting jobs, loosing revenue and feeling cool. And we have Gov. Ortom in the background, loving the spotlight of this new enterprise, waiting for applause. He cannot see the opportunities and the waste. He cannot understand why IGR is only N250m/month. Then we have the federal government exporting crude, exporting jobs, messing us all up.
The we have us, eating 50 million metric tonnes of cassava, converting it to pooh when we can convert it to cash.
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And we want to be called a developing country.

Daniel Bott wrote this epic truth.

bros,
wehdon.
to take up dis mata, na wish angu pesin go use?
agric value chain alone na textbook...

but las las, d tin b sey d one wey we dey farm too small for chop sef.
maybe iftosay we dey fit kip am well?
because d ones wey I c spoil 4 market eh?
d painment taya me.

anyow.
9ja stii get hope.
I b leaf.

GOOD research, perhaps Pa Audu got some plans for the future.

post=69031207:
GOOD research, perhaps Pa Audu got some plans for the future.

lol
u rili put a smile on my face.
plans for d fushor.
heheh

post=69031207:
GOOD research, perhaps Pa Audu got some plans for the future.

Shege!

Pure bread z0mb!

Wait! Wait! explain to me very well.

cool business

The problem with Nigeria is inability or laziness to process and maintenance.

Instead of beverages we sell cocoa

Instead of Petroleum products we sell crude

Instead of Ajaokuta, we import steal.

Until we have government who has business in business like they did in rice production.

How much was the same yam n cassava earning as foreign exchange when PDP rules for 16 years ?

How much was the same yam n cassava earning as foreign exchange when PDP rules for 16 years ?

This what benue people know how to do best. Eat rat

front4line:
How much was the same yam n cassava earning as foreign exchange when PDP rules for 16 years ?

Must you bring your petty political allegiance to every issue?

I was in primary one when I start hearing this grandpa name.

When you guys write, bad English will not even allow person to concentrate on the writeup. It is just terrible.

As much as it's a good idea to process raw material into finished goods, it can't be done sustainably at the snap of a finger.

Nigeria in the 70's adopted the import substitution strategy and imported a myriad of technologies which we know next to nothing about. At that time the economy was healthy on the surface as most Nigerians still lived in the rural areas and placed relatively little demand on the foreign exchange. Even then agriculture export still formed a decent part of our export though in raw form

Once our forex earnings collapsed most of the experts we employed to run our import substitution factories, railway and maintain them fled. We even had lots of expert teachers in high school and university, they mostly left as our salary starts declining in value.

Where I am going with all these is that it makes more sense to use our resources to train our workforce to be more competent in building and maintaining simple technology for processing our raw material. We can gradually improve this technology over time and borrow ideas all over the world. That is the only sustainable model. Instead of buying ready made technology with many eventually shut down like the car assembly plants, refinery, steel plants.

Meanwhile it's more sensible to gain market share by exporting what we produce today as we gradually develop the expertise to process. The export market is additional income for yam farmers and he might even employ more workers to cope with the demand.

At OP, if as a pharmacist you establish the PSG plant and offer the farmer a little bit more than export price they will line up your factory gate. This is possible since you said PSG is highly profitable

Ovamboland:
As much as it's a good idea to process raw material into finished goods, it can't be done sustainably at the snap of a finger.

Nigeria in the 70's adopted the import substitution strategy and imported a myriad of technologies which we know next to nothing about. At that time the economy was healthy on the surface as most Nigerians still lived in the rural areas and placed relatively little demand on the foreign exchange. Even then agriculture export still formed a decent part of our export though in raw form

Once our forex earnings collapsed most of the experts we employed to run our import substitution factories, railway and maintain them fled. We even had lots of expert teachers in high school and university, they mostly left as our salary starts declining in value.

Where I am going with all these is that it makes more sense to use our resources to train our workforce to be more competent in building and maintaining simple technology for processing our raw material. We can gradually improve this technology over time and borrow ideas all over the world. That is the only sustainable model. Instead of buying ready made technology with many eventually shut down like the car assembly plants, refinery, steel plants.

Meanwhile it's more sensible to gain market share by exporting what we produce today as we gradually develop the expertise to process. The export market is additional income for yam farmers and he might even employ more workers to cope with the demand.

At OP, if as a pharmacist you establish the PSG plant and offer the farmer a little bit more than export price they will line up your factory gate. This is possible since you said PSG is highly profitable

the constrain for most of us in Nigeria is not the idea but the resource to fund.

lordsterlin:


the constrain for most of us in Nigeria is not the idea but the resource to fund.

power
transportation
skilled labour
storage
taxation
egunjeeee!!!
bad bele factor
govt policy somersault
crazy loan rates

unless ur godfada hold gran wela,
who wan die hinsef...?

post=69031207:
GOOD research, perhaps Pa Audu got some plans for the future.

Him try sha

But make him use ds figure, wey dey below, do him computations

$21/tuber = #7000+

Not his crazy, #500!

Ortom, Benue gov, has always been a fool, anyway. No shikini, investments in agriculture! Pple like that, deserve to be shot!

If he wins, re-election, then PMB n INEC, failed Benue pple!

front4line:
How much was the same yam n cassava earning as foreign exchange when PDP rules for 16 years ?

What a very silly thing to type. Somebody is opening the eyes of the govt to profitable business you rush in with silly political comparison. Trump was right with this kind of mentality we will remain a shit hole. Let Audi Ogbe learn from this and improve our revenue base (except if they are allergic to learning) and lets not begin the pdp comparison nonesense talk again.