Vegetable and edible oil producers have raised alarm over the continued dominance of imported brands despite the retention of items in the Federal Government’s prohibition list under the 2026 fiscal policy measures.
Speaking recently in an interview on Arise TV Ikoro disclosed that members of the association recently intercepted three trailers transporting smuggled vegetable oil through the Badagry axis.
Ikoro, while reviewing the effect of the 2026 fiscal policy measures on the vegetable oil sector of the Nigerian economy, attributed this development to failure of government agencies to enforce the ban on foreign brands of vegetable and edible oil brands. The agencies he said include the Nigeria Customs Service, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria,(SON).
According to him, the initial ban failed by 85 percent after two years, even though it initially boosted investments as firms embarked on expansion projects following government protection of the industry.
He said: “The 2023 fiscal policy definitely placed vegetable oil under prohibition and a lot of milestones were gained because it was a long-time policy from 2023 to 2026. A lot of companies went into backward integration, huge companies like Okomu, Presco, PZ Wilmar , all of them went into major expansion because the policy gave protection to the industry.
“But two years later, entering 2024 and 2025, there was a total collapse of implementation on the side of the agencies that were supposed to monitor the fiscal policy, especially in the area of prohibition of items. We noticed that the markets were flooded with imported vegetable oil despite the fact that the item was under prohibition. If you go into the local market, you will see more than 100 brands of vegetable oil coming in from outside the country, in yellow jerry cans with funny labels.
Nobody is monitoring. NAFDAC is not doing its job.
“This resulted in a lot of losses and setbacks to the companies. Companies would have borrowed huge sums of money to put into their backward integration because oil palm is a long gestation investment. Before you can start getting returns, it takes a minimum of five years.
“These implementation problems do not give confidence to investors to even come into the country, or for those of us that are locally investing, to continue to invest in this sector. The government should not only put policies in place; it should also monitor their implementation.
“Just a few days ago, members of the association arrested three long trailers coming in from Badagry, all carrying vegetable oil. NAFDAC came to the spot and saw that these are prohibited items. But our worry is, where is Nigerian Customs on this?
“In all the markets, you see all sorts of brands coming in from all over Nigeria through Badagry and the northern borders, it was like a madhouse, actually, and it was like nobody is in charge of the borders anymore.”
