The National Association of Charcoal Producers Dealers Exporters and Afforestation of Nigeria (NACPDEAN), has announced that it is embarking on a massive reforestation project to ensure that the nation’s forests are well conserced and not depleted due to tree felling and other human activities.
The National Secretary General of the association, Amadi Kingsley made this known during the national elections and adoption of the national working constitution of the group at the weekend in Abuja.
He said the association have engaged the services agronomist and has mapped out plans that will enable it to achieve success within a good period of time as it hopes to work with the government in procuring improved varieties of both economic trees and others that can grow to provide enough forest cover in a few years.
Kingsley who emerged as the National Secretary General of the body during an election at the weekend, wasted no time in declaring that the efforts of NACPDEAN at protecting the forest is to also mitigate climate change and boost the economy through the production and export of quality charcoal.
The reason why the government earlier put a ban on charcoal is because there was no massive afforestation to sustain the business but we are going into serious afforestation where we are not just going to plant the trees and leave them to die, but nurture them and also plant tree crops. This will create more empowerment and employment because, without forest cover, we cannot sustain our businesses.
Nigeria is currently ranked second in global charcoal production and first in Africa earning up to $73.2 million from exports yearly while Brazil takes the lead with 6.3 million tonnes.
The outbreak of the global pandemic, COVID-19, and the ban placed on charcoal business by the federal government in May this year, has crippled most charcoal businesses in the country.
The Chairman of the Electoral Committee of the FACAN, Lawan Ali, said Russia has now become the largest market for Nigerian charcoal as it imports the product for a number of purposes such as heat generation and the production of medicine that is used to detoxify the liver, further creating a huge market demand for wood charcoal.
Ali said “Russia is a very cold country so they use our charcoal to generate heat that will keep their environment warm. Also according to some of them, if you are taking the charcoal tablet according to the prescriptions of their physicians, you won’t have toxins in the kidney and to my surprise almost all the Russians I met when I travelled to the country, have been taking the tablet.
I know that some people are exporting our charcoal to Russia and the Russians are very big consumers of charcoal so the market opportunities are huge for Nigeria, so I am urging charcoal exporters to explore the market as we make an effort to partner with the Russian embassy here.”
“I want to assure you that Russia is a very big market for Nigerian charcoal. When I told them we have charcoal, they said yes we already know and we are using Nigerian charcoal and they are using it to make tablets but what I don’t know is whether there is an addition of something else to the charcoal tablet”.
“Mr. Kingsley Amadi, the National Secretary General of the association also noted that as businessmen focus now will also be on afforestation so we are not just about felling trees for biomass energy but also on tree planting. We want to be the national body to champion afforestation in Nigeria.”