Federal Government, led by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu has been urged to monitor the full implementation of the 2026 fiscal policy to encourage industrialization and investment on indigenous produce as well as to boast country’s economy.

The National President, Vegetable and Edible Oil Producers Association of Nigeria, Chief Okey Ikoro, made the call at a press conference in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Monday.

Ikoro noted that the non-implementation of the policy not only hampers efforts for economic growth and overall development of the country but also has adverse effects on the Vegetable Oil sector.

He also urged the federal government to task the Nigerian Customs Service, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) to wake up to their responsibilities.

He stressed that their failure to properly discharge their duties encourages the influx of imported vegetable oil into the country, negatively impacts indigenous producers, and has health implications for consumers.

He said, “Since 2024, there had been an unchecked influx of refined vegetable oil from other countries into Nigeria, which has put our members in debt and running them out of business. This is because people tend to patronize the imported oil more because they are cheap. They are cheap because they are smuggled in. They don’t pay taxes and other duties.

“So it is near impossible for indigenous vegetable oil producers to compete favourably with imported vegetable oil marketers who don’t have to pay huge electricity bills, value-added tax, and alternative power options to fuel their factories.

He continued, “The 2023 fiscal policy placed imported refined vegetable oil as contraband, and we made significant progress, and our businesses and companies expanded, and we hired more hands.

“But from 2025, everything collapsed. Since then, Nigerian markets have been flooded with all sorts of vegetable oil products through the Badagry border. And this has resulted in lots of setbacks for us. Many who took loans cannot service them and businesses have been folding up since then.”

“There are over 100 oil brands in the Nigerian markets today and nobody checks them like ours because they are cheaper. They don’t have to pay for band A electricity charges, pay VAT, or even diesel for the machines. Nobody knows the processes under which they were produced and our people are consuming them even with the risks involved.

“We want Customs, NAFDAC, SON to wake up to their responsibilities and if they cannot, the federal government should find an alternative for them because we can’t continue like this. Just last week, our members arrested three trucks with 100 tonnes of vegetable oil each, and we ask how do they cross the borders, these are heavy big trucks during broad daylight. Customs, NAFDAC and SON are killing our businesses”, he lamented.