Nigeria’s Shea Ban Backfires, Crushing Millions Of Women Workers

In August, nan Associated Press reported that Nigeria had passed a rule prohibiting nan export of earthy shea nuts — a cardinal constituent successful galore cosmetics.

Shea nuts are large business successful Nigeria, a state responsible for astir 40 percent of nan world’s shea crop production. The inaugural was designed to position Nigeria arsenic a starring shaper of refined shea food and different skincare products.

“The prohibition will toggle shape Nigeria from an exporter of earthy shea seed to a world supplier of refined shea butter, oil, and different derivatives,” Nigeria’s vice president, Kashim Shettima, announced.

The prohibition is not permanent, officials said, and is slated for reappraisal aft six months. That is simply a bully thing, because grounds shows nan prohibition is already having consequences — and not nan intended ones. The BBC reports that nan prohibition connected exports had “backfired.” 

“The volition was to boost section accumulation of nan vanished butter…and truthful summation nan magnitude of nan profit which stays successful Nigeria,” BBC newsman Todah Opeyemi said. “But nan abrupt displacement has led to a autumn successful request for nan shea seed arsenic location is not capable section capacity to process each of nan country’s harvest.”

This mightiness sound for illustration a mini matter, but it’s not. Nigeria produces astir 350,000 tonnes of shea nuts each year. The manufacture supports millions of workers — predominantly mediocre women. 

The Centre for nan Promotion of Imports from processing countries (CBI), a Dutch authorities agency that helps developing-country producers entree European markets, notes that shea food is often called “women’s gold” because it provides livelihoods for complete 2.2 cardinal Nigerian women who activity arsenic shea seed collectors and processors.

Most of these workers are impoverished by Western standards. The BBC profiled Hajaratu Isah, a 40-year-old worker pinch six children who has spent her full big life preparing nan fruit. Prior to nan export ban, she could make arsenic overmuch arsenic 5,000 naira ($3.30 USD) per day, which allowed her to acquisition medicine and acquisition services. Her net person reportedly fallen to little than half of that magnitude successful nan aftermath of nan ban. 

“Since nan announcement, we person been suffering,” she told nan BBC. “It does not impact only america but nan full concatenation of group moving here, including nan labourers.”

Nigeria’s shea seed prohibition is simply a classical lawsuit of backfire economics, wherever a argumentation ends up harming nan very group it’s meant to help. To beryllium fair, location was a definite logic to nan Nigerian government’s cardinal plan. 

The scheme was to get a bigger portion of nan $6.5 cardinal shea market. Nigeria mightiness relationship for astir half of nan world’s shea seed production, but it accounts for conscionable a sliver of nan world shea food marketplace — astir 1 percent — because nan immense mostly of its nuts are shipped retired successful earthy shape and processed elsewhere.

The solution seemed simple: alternatively of exporting earthy shea nuts, refine them successful Nigeria. It turns out, however, that refining shea nuts is not precisely easy. 

I won’t declare to cognize thing astir shea nuts — I couldn’t place 1 if you showed it to me—but papers connected nan subject picture nan refinement arsenic an arduous task. Nuts person to beryllium cleaned and sorted, cracked open, roasted conscionable right, crushed into a paste, and past squeezed to get food — each without ruining nan quality. In agrarian areas, overmuch of this activity is done by hand, but parts of nan process require superior finance — decent equipment, tons of water, and cleanable retention (if not, nan food goes bad).

Nigeria does person astatine slightest 1 awesome shea seed processing plant: Salid Agriculture Nigeria Limited. On its website, it says it produces 100 tonnes of shea food a time — astir one-tenth of what Nigeria would require — and boasts that it “empowers” 45,000 agrarian women workers. 

Salid Agriculture is “an state of nan existent government,” according to nan BBC. And nan institution stands to use from nan policy. Plummeting request for shea nuts has already resulted successful a illness successful prices, which intends nan patient tin get earthy materials astatine a fraction of their erstwhile costs —  and perchance predominate nan recently protected home processing market.

The prohibition will nary uncertainty beryllium a windfall for some. But for millions of Nigerians, it could beryllium devastating. 

“When I heard astir nan export ban, I could not sleep,” 1 55-year-old woman, Fatima Ndako, told nan BBC, adding that 14 group unrecorded successful her house. “The money we make is what we usage to provender our families.”

We don’t cognize really Ndako and millions of different Nigerian women and their families will beryllium affected by nan prohibition connected shea nuts, but students of economical history tin beryllium forgiven for fearing nan worst. Attempts to scheme and prohibition immense amounts of economical activity, moreover pinch nan noblest intentions, tin alternatively create quality tragedies of catastrophic proportions. Similar efforts astatine economical self-sufficiency by unit underlay nan Holodomor famine successful Ukraine nether Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan, Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward, and Cambodia’s bloody attempt astatine agrarian utopia, among others.

“The funny task of economics,” Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek observed, “is to show to men really small they really cognize astir what they ideate they tin design.”

The thought that thing arsenic elemental arsenic an export prohibition connected a seed tin plunge millions into deeper poorness shows conscionable really small power planners genuinely person complete analyzable economical systems. Hopefully, nan Nigerian government’s ham-fisted effort to remake its shea manufacture by decree is quickly reversed and provides a instruction successful humility — and not a humanitarian disaster.