4 Mar 2019 (BusinessAMLive) (press release) (blog) : Today, in the world market, a litre of palm oil is more expensive than a litre of crude oil. Malaysia, which sourced her palm fruits from Nigeria in the early 1960s, has reversed her economy from crude oil dependency to palm oil dependency while Nigeria is still rooted on the same spot.

The federal government has failed to intervene with special funds in this abandoned sector of the economy. OKEY IKORO, managing director and chief executive officer, Camela Vegetable Oil Company, based in Owerri, Imo State, and current president of Vegetable and Edible Oil Producers Association of Nigeria (VEOPAN), explains to business a.m.’s DIKACHI FRANKLIN the problems of the sector and tells of what the federal government should do to encourage its growth.

Being the national president of the Vegetable and Edible Oil Producers Associations of Nigeria (VEOPAN), can you tell us the story of your members’ struggles to survive in this economy, which has been tough on business?

As a matter of fact, the Nigerian economy today has failed; it has offered nothing to the vegetable oil sector. When I say total neglect, I mean we have never had it this bad. It is a pity that in Nigeria, under the prohibition list, prohibition of vegetable oil is there. We are not supposed to import vegetable oil in bulk. Also, under the exclusion list, palm oil is excluded from import, but you notice that all over the country today, all kinds of branded vegetable oil are in all the supermarkets, in all the open markets, all the borders are open and there is no control.

The vegetable oil industry is in extreme hardship. To tell you the truth, we are not getting reprieve from anywhere at all, not from the Customs, because the borders are open; not from government, because there are no strict measures being taken. It has become a free-for-all thing. And even people are making applications now asking for waivers to bring in the bulk; so it has become uncontrollable. It’s like nobody is in charge of stopping this smuggling of importations of vegetable oil.