Meeting Nigeria’s Demand for Animal Protein: Opportunities & Challenges

MEETING NIGERIA’S DEMAND FOR ANIMAL PROTEIN: OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES

OMOSOMI OMOMIA

The average Nigerian consumes animal protein every single day, irrespective of income or social class. Consequently, the populace constitutes over 50 percent of beef and other livestock consumption in the ECOWAS region.As a result, in West Africa, animal protein demand and consumption is mainly concentrated in Nigeria. Subsequently, the country is the largest livestock producer in the sub-region accounting for an estimated 40 percent of livestock herds in Central and West Africa. Nigeria’s size of cattle herds are estimated to be over 16 million, way above that of its regional counterparts such as Niger with 8.9 million; Mali at about 8.5 million and Chad at about 7.5 million, according to international estimates.

There are in excess of 50,000 meat businesses (both wholesale and retail) in Nigeria with average annual turnover estimated at N25 million per annum.Despite the size of the beef supply market, production is unable to meet domestic consumptionfor red meat. Consequently, prices have increased at a rate of 20% per annum for the last twenty years, representative of the demand-supply shortfall in an era of rapid population growth.

The red meat end markets are part of the wider protein market which includes poultry and fish. Subsequently, rearing and raising cattle in Nigeria is mainly augmented by otherlivestock and aquaculture operations including the over 180 million poultry livestock market.The Nigerian poultry sector is significantly fragmented with most of the chicken raised in small-scale household operationsof less than 1,000 birds. However, there are a number of major commercial players in the sector mostly concentrated in the South-west. Overall, Nigeria is one of the largest livestock-raising countries in the region.

The Nigerian poultry industry revenue is estimated to be over N87 billion with market supply of about 800,000 metric tonnes of eggs and 340,000 metric tonnes of poultry meat in 2014. In terms of market share, Nigeria’s metric tonnes of eggs are the largest in Africa and also accounts for the second highest chicken population after South Africa’s 200 million birds.According to the Poultry Association of Nigeria, poultry farmers in Nigeria constitute 25 percent of the country’s agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Furthermore, the poultry industry has emerged as the fastest growing segment in the animal husbandry subsector. In addition, chicken production is likely to become the fastest growing agribusiness sector in sub-Saharan Africa; though it still faces challenges of feed-food supply shortages, avian influenza, inadequate credit financing and overdependence on imported improved breeds. Despite these challenges, analysts have projected a 15 percent annual growth in the poultry industry in the next decade driven by Nigeria’s large population and rapidly growing middle class.