The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the country needs about N60 billion annually for the importation of palm oil to meet domestic consumption.
A total sum of over N45.03 billion had hitherthoo been disbursed to stakeholders in the oil palm industry to aid the cultivation of about 31, 442 hectares to further grow the commodity,the bank’s Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said.
He explained that the apex bank’s intervention would help unleash the potential of the oil palm value chain with requisite support for the economic diversification plan as well as the industrialisation aspiration of the country.
He added that the importation demand was expected to cover both the Technical Palm Oil (TPO) used in industry and Special Palm Oil (SPO) used by households.
He added that Nigeria’s palm oil production per annum is currently estimated at 1,250,000 million metric tons (MT) with demand valued at 2,500,00 MT per annum.
The apex bank also said, for the country to achieve 50 per cent import substitution through production upgrade within the next 10 years, there was need to bridge demand deficits for domestic production of fresh fruit bunches from 8.5 million MT in 2010 to about 10 million MT.
According to the fourth quarter 2021 trade statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), crude palm oil imports from China totaled N20.28 billion and N16.49 billion from Malaysia as well as palm olein worth N31.43 billion imported from Malaysia.
