The new Directorate of Cargo Development Services at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, led the Aviacargo Roadmap committee on a Courtesy call to the Headquarters of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS) in Abuja.

Led by the Director Mr Lekan Thomas, the Team were Hosted by Dr. Vincent Isegbe and his team.

The Director told the NAQS team, that the Honourable Minister created the Cargo Directorate to focus on the growth of Air Cargo in Nigeria to Contribute It’s Fair Share 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, the Coordinator of the Aviacargo Roadmap committee, Mr. Ikechi Uko 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 5 Step Process that starts from the Farm.

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 .

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

The Gap Mr Uko said is in the Logistics from Farm to the Airport.

The Logistics gap include Cold Chain 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.

FAAN should insists on strict Licensing regimes and setting viable SOPs and SLAs for all Stakeholders in the Export Value chain, some of which the Cargo Directorate is currently implementing.

In his speech the Comptroller General of NAQS thanked the team for coming to brief 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.

He unveiled the SOPs already developed by NAQS for Exporters.

NAQS he said has developed a detailed guide for the export of different Agro Produces from Nigeria.

He identified the Challenges faced by the Agency in implementing it’s Mandate and Sought for Support from FAAN.

It was agreed that FAAN, the Aviacargo Roadmap committee and NAQS will do trial runs of Exports from 4 Airports using the developed Template.

There will a timed export from harvest at the Farm to the Lagos Airport or other suitable airport to set a standard that can be repeated by other exporters.

This will be done in October/November from a NAQS registered Farm.

There will be another trial through Kano Airport in partnership with the State Government of Grains.

There will be another trial export through Enugu in partnership with the State Government and the last one will be through the Jos Airport also in partnership with the State Government.

The Aviacargo team included Dr Alex Nwuba a Consultant, Dr. Sanwoolu of NAFDAC, Dr Favour Akin Dada, representing NAQS on the Committee.

The FAAN team included Chief Hycienth Ngwu GM Business Development, Mr Obiora Udoyeh, DGM Cargo, Ms Kemi Odutola, PA to the Director and Barrister Bobby Omeogu the secretary of the Aviacargo Roadmap committee and Chief Business Development Officer at FAAN.