Still a lot of palm oil is imported into Africa because it does not have the necessary production capacity to meet demand. Nigeria intends to take the turn of this African market.

Africa is unable to cover its demand for palm oil and has to import it, regrets the secretary of the Nigerian Action Committee on the African Continental Free Trade Area (Zlecaf) Agreement, Francis Anatogu. “Our market is huge and represents 11.8% of Africa's total imports. We need to maintain our share of the domestic market and we hope to develop local capacity,” the official told Nigerian daily This Day. Welcoming the efforts already made, notably by the Nigerian government to increase investment in agriculture and agribusiness, he however stressed the importance of scaling up the effect and “catalyzing the national market in order to s ensure that we consume what we produce and, as demand grows, people will be incentivized to produce more”. For her part, Celestine Ikuenobe, executive director of the Nigerian Institute for Palm Oil Research (Nifor), recalled that the country is the leading African producer and fifth in the world of palm oil, but far behind the frontrunners, Indonesia with its 44 million tonnes (Mt) and Malaysia (19 Mt), but ahead of Côte d'Ivoire with its 400,000 t, the Nigerian producing around 1.5 Mt, he said in an interview yesterday with The Nation . However, he has reservations about the reliability of the Nigerian figures because small-scale productions, by individuals, are not counted.