ICAIS-1 – VI, CBAAC, Partner for 1st Indigenous Stimulants Confab

Victor Nze

16 June 2011

Vertical Inspirations (VI), a cultural relations organization, Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), a parastatal in the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, and the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) have announced partnership for the proposed First International Conference on Africa’s Indigenous Stimulants ( ICAIS-1, 2011).

Under the theme of; Economic Potentials and Wealth Creation, the conference/exhibition which is expected to hold at the ECOWAS Commission Secretariat, Abuja between July 12 and 13, is aimed at repositioning the production processes, branding and marketing of the country’s indigenous stimulants with a view to improving awareness and economic benefits for both the country, producers and consumers of the products.

An initiative and concept of the Vertical Inspirations, the proposed conference is also supported by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Administration, the Ekiti Sate government, Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), a UNESCO-affiliated institution, and the African Business Roundtable (ABT) .

Indigenous stimulants are contained in crops like the kolanut, bitter-kola, alligator pepper, Ethiopian coffee, and others. Of this lot, the kolanut has gained international reputation for its nutritional and health benefits as it is said to contain natural caffeine in more quantity than those found in coffee, according to scientists.

The popularity of these crops follows a pattern of settlement of Africans in both the continent and in the Diaspora, as the crop has acquired a staple status where indigenous Africans reside. Africans tend to bring along their traditions and cultures with them in the various regions like the Caribbean and West Indies, North America.

With Nigeria accounting for over 70 per cent of world production of the crop, and just over 10 per cent of local consumption, experts say the bulk of the commodity is smuggled out to the rest of the world via the country’s porous land borders thus leaving both the growers in particular and the country in general in penury.

Besides the nutritional and health benefits well known around the world, the conference organizers hope to highlight the economic potentials of these indigenous stimulants to visitors and participants alike so as to economically empower them in just the same way as to drive economic growth of the country via the agricultural sector.

Among the older age bracket in the country, who are also the major growers, the kolanut in particular, is said to represent a medium of interaction and communication between man and the ancestral spirits, which according to some opinions also accounts for the fact that few take cognisance of the economic benefits to be reaped from a well-articulated production and marketing process driven by pure market demands.

While some experts posit that going by present economic dictates, the indigenous stimulants especially the kolanut are yet to be refined and fine-tuned in terms of their packaging to be able to compete favourably with competitions like the instant coffee products, even though it is less dangerous to the health.

The planned conference therefore, according to organizers, is intended to explore options and ideas in terms of production, packaging and marketing and indeed, branding, for the stimulants for them to become avenues for empowering the citizenry at large and the producers.

It is also believed that when the producer community is full empowered by way of wealth creation through better branding of the stimulants, government stands to also derive its own rewards by way an increase in the Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs) resulting from the programme.

At the media briefing in Lagos, Thursday, to announce preparations for the conference/exhibitions, which was well attended by all the participating and sponsoring agencies and firms, Director General of CBAAC, Prof Tunde Babawale, said the conference hopes to create wealth and awareness on the stimulants and in the long run attempt to diversify the sole dependence of the Nigerian economy on oil.

“We so much believe in imported products even when we have the alternatives here all around us. There are also some purposes for these stimulants which we are yet to fully exploit. Do you know that in Trinidad & Tobago, the kolanut is used as an antidote to poison, such that when a person ingests poison, the kolanut is preferred.

“There is also the need to represent these products in line with the changing times. As the federal government looks for ways of diversifying the economy from total crude oil dependency, these products also represent economic potentials and to have government pay attention we hope to encourage government to introduce a crop census, especially on those ones that fetch money, control, regularize production as it works in other countries.”

“By making it a huge industry we can get foreign investors to participate in the production. We are also going to use the platform to promote cultural tourism, as people outside will now want to come and see the country producing that great commodity kolanut. Oil is exhaustible, the only thing that is not is the agricultural produce like kolanut when properly exploited,” said Babawale.

Chairman of proposed conference, Professor Wande Abimbola, former Vice chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, while tracing the origin and types of kolanut to Nigeria and Ghana, affirmed the efficacy of the stimulants and their uses around the world especially in the United States and Brazil, just as he urged intellectuals to do more research on the indigenous stimulants.

“We have to find ways of and means to generate wealth for our God-given agricultural resources. Kolanut is indigenous to Nigeria especially one of the two popular varieties; the other being Ghana. People chew kolanut all over the world- in Black Africa. Nigerians also freight kolanut in containers to several parts of the world. We have to look back; wealth is all over our streets, in our backyard and everywhere but we do not recognize it.

“If the kolanut was a product of Asia, I can tell you it would have been a different thing today. We also need to have a regulatory board like for the cocoa, except this time it would be for kolanut, said Prof Abimbola, founder of the Ife Heritage Institute, a UNESCO-assisted institute in Oyo State.

Speaking in the same vein, Dr. Emmanuel A. Aigbeka who represented Executive Director of CRIN, remarked that kolanut was a major product during the trans-Sahara trade hence its popularity in the African community.

While informing that his organization had succeeded in processing kolanut into wine and powdery forms to fortify cocoa powder to produce chocolate, he also announced other feats of his organization like producing animal feed for snails, and agricultural fertilizer, Aigbeka, however called for price regulation of the indigenous stimulants.

For Project Coordinator, Africa Region, Princess Amanda B. Adesida-Peterson, the need to exploit the continent’s resources informs the convening of the conference as the peoples of the continent must take advantage of the enormous potentials of her natural resources in line with the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

“The need to urgently sensitize the awareness of the larger public including: cultural sectors, agricultural sectors, international organizations, African diplomatic missions, producers of the stimulants, and others, on another revenue generating mechanism in respect to the medicinal values, traditional values, cultural/tourism promotion, benefits/advantages and wealth creation of the indigenous stimulants, has necessitated the conceptualization of the first International Conference on Africa’s Indigenous Stimulants, in collaboration with the agencies committed to the cause and targeted at the beneficiaries mentioned inter-alia.

“With only four years to go for its implementation, from the date of ICAIS-1, 2011, the international conference will further contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 1, 4, 5 and 7 under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, ” according to. Adesida-Peterson.

Other dignitaries present at the event include Mr. Iwunor Isaac of Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Benedict Odey, Programme Officer, African Business Roundtable, Dr. Keye Olaore, Permanent Secretary, Osun State Ministry of Commerce, Cooperatives and Empowerments and members of Kolanut Growers and Traders of Nigeria.

With objectives of the conference such as: Awareness sensitization on a neglected wealth-creating sector of the African economy; establishment of “The Kolanut House”, that will constitute a permanent base for the follow-up on the international conference, facilitate/monitor mass plantation and attraction of foreign investors in the sector; cultural, tourism and medicinal values promotion, the planned conference also aims at; integration of women in development; promotion of food security/poverty alleviation; and comprehensive documentation for the students of tertiary institutions, with special emphasis on such disciplines as agriculture, agro-forestry and international relations, amongst others.

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