Ministries of trade, Agriculture to co-host 11th international annual Shea conference

From Abba-Eku Onyeka, Abuja

Honorable Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Industry (FMITI), Hajia Aisha Abubakar has disclosed the readiness of her ministry and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to host 11th Annual International Shea Conference come 12 to 14 March, 2018 in Abuja.
The 11th International Conference is with the theme: ‘’Going Further Together.”
The Minister made this known in a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Press, Olujimi Oyetome.
Speaking on the importance of the conference, the minister said it would among others help participants to learn best practices, build new partnership, launch projects and promote organizational setting and also open new markets for the industry’s products globally.
She further informed that it would reduce trade barriers, achieve sustainability with the current administration’s focus on agriculture in the country, just as she added that Nigeria stands to benefit immensely from the Shea Industry in the area of employment generation, poverty eradication, wealth creation, environment sustainability and attraction of foreign exchange earnings across the value chain.
She therefore disclosed that Nigeria accounts for about 57% of the World Shea nut production, adding that the global Shea market for chocolate and confectionary value was approximately $117billion and that of the cosmetics industry, $382billion.