The Institute of Export Operations and Management (IEOM) with headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State South-South Nigeria has rallied groups to help reduce poor product showing especially for export.
Packaging and complying with various regulations affecting product screening are the major focus which attracted over 250 small businesses in the Niger Delta to the Conference Hall of the Federal Secretariat on Aba Road in Port Harcourt for a free technical training.
Ofon Udofia, the executive secretary of IEOM, in his welcome remarks, said main target is to reduce or totally eliminate rejection of Nigerian products at the borders and entry points of countries.
The Institute worked with in collaboration with TAGDev 2.0 Programme of the University of Port Harcourt, with support from RUFORUM, and in partnership with Mastercard Foundation to mount the two-day training for SMEs including printers and designers on packaging, branding and compliance for consumer goods. The focus was on everything from farm to the market.
Udofia stated that Nigeria has entrepreneurs producing quality products, “Yet some struggle to compete effectively because their products are inadequately packaged, poorly branded or do not meet the requirements of the market and regulatory authorities.”
He said IEOM believes that a good product must not only be produced well; it must also be properly presented, branded, and compliant. “Packaging protects and presents the product, branding communicates its identity and value, while compliance builds consumer confidence and opens the door to formal and international markets.”
He gave a simple charge: “Do not just attend this training, use it to improve your business. Look at your packaging differently, strengthen your brand, understand your compliance obligations and begin to position your products for wider markets.”
Speaking to newsmen outside the hall, the executive secretary said labelling includes how to put products in place; put your brand out; do your labeling; how to put the required information including allergy information, etc.
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“So, we have sat down as an Institute with our partners to say, let’s see how we can make our products to compete favorably, especially in the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Nobody wants to buy rubbish. Nigeria is known for abundance of agricultural products and services. So, the essence of this program is to make sure that by the time we are done in the next few months, our products will actually be rebranded.”
Some printers need help, they copy and paste. “By the time they are done, they will be very happy. We’ll be very happy to see that both RUFORUM, Mastercard, IEOM, TAGDev 2.0, and the participants will share a mutual sense of pride that we have done a lot, and we have achieved much.”
He said the Institute will handhold the SMEs to help them in international packaging standards and to meet compliance standards. The entrepreneurs can also come back to the IEOM to learn more or join the IEOM-backed cooperative to grow.
“We have a place in our Institute, both for processing, product development, packaging, branding, until we get to export. The entire value chain is covered.”
Saying charity begins at home, Udofia said he wants to start from home. He thanked the resource persons that helped to draw the scheme to Port Harcourt for the Niger Delta.
TAGDev 2.0 and agric support:
One of the pillars of the scheme, Ibisime Etela, a professor and TAGDev 2.0 Programme Coordinator in the University of Port Harcourt, said the scheme is about transforming African agricultural universities to meaningfully contribute to Africa’s growth and development.
“It’s a Pan-African programme being implemented by 12 universities across Africa that are members of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), with headquarters in Kampala, Uganda. So, they are supporting the TAGDev 2.0 Program in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
“There are three components. One that has to do with academic empowerment, where we have 60 fully paid undergraduate scholarship programmes for those who are intending to study agriculture programmes in agriculture and related ones in the University of Port Harcourt. And then we also have another 30 fully paid scholarships at the master’s level.
“So far, we have the Cohort 1 which has 10 undergraduates and five masters, in phases until we have the full 60/30.
“The TAGDev Programme is a 10-year scheme from 2023 to 2033. Apart from the academic programme, it also has the one that has to do with community engagement, where we’ll be working closely with the communities, with the farmers, and so on. Which is why we started working with some of the local government areas to enable reach the communities directly.
“The third component is also promoting climate-smart agriculture through the programme. Some of the things we are also doing involve other agronomic things to mitigate climate change. We have a component for tree planting where about 500,000 trees shall be planted over a period of time. So, all these are components that have been designed to promote food security.”
He said the TAGDev 2.0 Programme which was on display at the event was being implemented by the University of Port Harcourt with the support of the Vice Chancellor and RUFORUM and Mastercard Foundation, all committed to supporting the farmers, out-of-school youths, and so on.
“The programme primarily targets 70% of females for every scheme with 15% to refugees and displaced persons, and then 10% to persons who are differently abled.
“To date, we have reached about 1,200 farmers, smallholder farmers. We have also reached about 1,500 out-of-school youths. We have also supported about 50 enterprises in different ways including scaling and registration at the Corporate Affairs Commission. “We have helped many to understand those simple principles of business.”
He said most SMEs do not know how to manage the value chain, know what to do and what to leave for others as well as segmenting from primary to secondary and even tertiary products.
He said TEGDev 2.0 uses partners and linkages to hope to cover all of Nigeria by empowering and training the trainers.
Other resource voices:
Cliff Jarrel of Christ Family Home for Children hailed the training and stated that the image of Nigeria outside is that of hardworking people. “Nigeria is going to shake the world. This training is a very powerful plank in the things that will make Nigeria strong.”
Anthony Ojinimi Onoja, a professor and President, Agricultural Policy Research Network (APRNet), said they provide the bridge between the academia and industry.
“We try to support food and job security, and we carry out regular research on poverty, food, etc. We build capacity of young scholars, farmers, etc.”
The professor stated that APRNet produces fishery and agricultural policy resource and hands to the Federal Ministry of the Blue Economy.
He was optimistic the day’s programme would help create jobs. “We are helping to fight hunger, unemployment. We will work to help send our products outside.”
Speaking, Umandu Inana, zonal coordinator of the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) in Port Harcourt, explained how the institute fights post-harvest waste. “We store, process, preserve and add value to agric products. We realise that poor packaging leads also to loss.”
She urged the SMEs to pay attention, learn, practice, ask questions, and go home to excel. “Its not for selfies and posting.”
Harping on how to navigate from a local product to global market, she said for over 75 years, NSPRI has remained committed to its mandate which is to reduce the high percentage postharvest losses and ensuring food security in Nigeria.
“We have developed and promoted technologies, methods, and practices that help farmers, food processors, and other value-chain actors preserve, process, store, and add value to agricultural products. We also want to ensure that the food produced by our farmers is properly handled, preserved, processed, packaged, and made available to consumers in good condition.
“This is why today’s training on Packaging, Branding and Compliance is very important and closely connected to what NSPRI does. Postharvest loss is not only what happens when food spoils on the farm or in storage.”
Inana said to compete successfully, “Your product must look professional, communicate clearly with the customer, meet the required standards, and give consumers confidence. I want to say this to you confidently that this training will help you all understand how to improve the way you present and protect your products through proper packaging, building stronger brands, meeting relevant requirements, and positioning your businesses for better markets.”
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