26 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2013
Nigeria mobilises for 2013 World Cashew Expo, Fiesta BY DANIEL GUMM
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T is clear that the global cashew industry has recognised that the future of cashew lies in Africa. Gradually, the up-coming 2013 world cashew expo to hold for the first time on the soil of Nigeria is gaining momentum, and giving reason for renewed interest in investing in the nation’s cashew industry. At the Executive Committee meeting of the African Cashew Alliance, which held in Accra, Ghana, attended by major global cashew stakeholders, a collective decision was taken to strongly support Nigeria and ensure that this year’s event indeed becomes the largest, best and most successful world cashew expo ever held. This year ’s world cashew expo will lead to a global declaration on the development of Nigeria and Africa’s cashew industry with emphasis on how it can realise its full potential in production, processing, food safety standards
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EXCO — From left: Marian Gymfi, Sotonye Anga (NCAN), Tola Faseru (NCAN) and Kofi Apia, at the Executive Committee meeting of the African
Cashew Alliance (ACA), which held at the Airside Hotel, Accra, Ghana. and marketing, thereby funding for scaling up to-production; generating revenue in research and developb. Improving tree proexcess of over US$300 ment of cashew produc- ductivity; million. tion and processing techc. Learning and innoBelow are guidelines nologies. While this re- vation in processing, that will be followed and search should remain the e.g. ergonomics; sustained: public sector’s responsid. Other relevant techSupport cashew procbility, nurseries and dis- nologies. essors and exporters in tribution should be priImplement investtraining farmers on qual- vate sector-driven, pos- ment incentives for ity, productivity and sibly through processors cashew processing uticrop handling. and exporters, and re- lising best practices! Farmers should decide search organisations To take off in Africa, how they market their should have private sec- the cashew processing products. tor input and/ or govern- industry requires govInvest in research, ance. ernment support in development Research and develop- learning to compete in Cashew research instiment should focus on the the international markettutes across Africa need following themes: place. Governments in to receive increased a. Reducing tree years- Africa need to imple-
ment investment incentives and policies to support value addition through processing in a consistent and transparent manner. These measures include but are not limited to the following: a. Full implementation of the elimination of tariffs, duties and taxes levied on raw cashew nuts traded between African countries as provided by the ECOWAS, CEMAC and SADC trade agreements; b. Tax and duty breaks for capital investments;
c. Promoting compliance to international standards; d. Time-bound exemptions to social security and taxation of salaries; e. Productivity-linked wages; f. Simplify and expedite the bureaucratic requirements for establishing agribusiness processing factories; g. Risk-sharing tools for investment and working capital finance; h. Implement all incentives based on best practices (e.g. consistently, transparently and timely).
Trade integration key to micro-economic convergence
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NEW policy paper by the African Development Bank carries the importance of trade integration to macroeconomic convergence. Published in March 2013, the report titled: "Supporting Macroeconomic Convergence in African regional economic communities," recommends to link the roadmap in the implementation of macroeconomic convergence to
progress made in trade integration. In so doing, the AfDB report comes with some revisions to the application of macroeconomic convergence, building on the lessons from the experience in implementing the concept in Europe and elsewhere, with a view to ensuring a balance between the financial sector and the real sector programmes.