FAAN, NAQS in partnership for clean agro-products export

The new Directorate of Cargo Development Services domiciled in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Aviacargo Roadmap committee have jointly partnered with the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS) in a move designed to increase Nigeria’s export.

A team from the directorate led by Lekan Thomas, its director, was received by Vincent Isegbe and his NAQS team.

Thomas told the NAQS team that Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation, created the Cargo Directorate to focus on the growth of air cargo in Nigeria to contribute its quota to the economy and move Nigeria’s position as part of the leading exporting nations in Africa.

The team, he said, came to NAQS because of the importance of the agency in the new vision for improved agro exports in Nigeria.

In his presentation, Ikechi Uko, coordinator, Aviacargo Roadmap committee, told the NAQS team that the committee has developed an Export Aviacargo Pathway that will form the template for future export through the airports.

The new pathway is a five-step process that starts from the farm.

The first is that any produce meant for export has to come from a registered farm. The farm has to be registered by NAQS or the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

The second step will be a registered known shipper who can aggregate and consolidate.

The third step is a regulated agent who is licensed to a third country as a KC3.

The last stage before export is through a Handling Company that is also licensed to global standards, very likely RA3.

NAQS will vet the goods at the handling company along with NDLEA and Customs before the licensed airline.

With this pathway, produce can be traced and tracked, reducing rejects of Nigerian agro produce abroad.

Uko told the NAQS director general that there are identified gaps in the pathway that might be a problem.

The gap, Uko said, is in the logistics from farm to the airport.

The logistics gaps include Cold Chain call processes and contamination issues in transporting produce from farm to Airport.

He said the conversion of unknown goods to known goods will rely on the licensing of agents at different levels of the ecosystem.

He added that FAAN should insist on strict licensing regimes and setting viable SOPs [standard operating procedures] and SLAs [service level agreements] for all stakeholders in the export value chain, some of which the cargo directorate is currently implementing.

The comptroller-general of NAQS thanked the team for briefing him on the progress made so far.

He said the NAQS will be willing to partner with the team to initiate seamless handling of exports, while unveiling the SOPs already developed by NAQS for exporters.

NAQS, he said, has developed a detailed guide for the export of different agro-produce from Nigeria.

He identified the challenges faced by the agency in implementing its mandate and sought support from FAAN.

It was agreed that FAAN, the Aviacargo Roadmap committee and NAQS will do trial runs of exports from four airports using the developed template.

There will be a timed export from harvest at the farm to the Lagos Airport or other suitable airports to set a standard that can be repeated by other exporters.This will be done in October/November from a NAQS registered farm.

Ikechi said there will be another trial through Kano airport in partnership with the Kano State government of grains.

There will be another trial export through Enugu in partnership with the Enugu State government, and the last one will be through the Jos airport, also in partnership with the state governments.

The Aviacargo team included Alex Nwuba, a consultant, Sanwo-Olu of NAFDAC, Favour Akin Dada, representing NAQS on the committee.

The FAAN team included Hycienth Ngwu, general manager, business development; Obiora Udoyeh, DGM, Cargo; Kemi Odutola*, personal assistant to the director; and Bobby Omeogu, secretary of the Aviacargo Roadmap committee and chief business development at FAAN