Charcoal industry catalyst to Nigeria’s economic growth, poverty reduction – Expert

By Collins Yakubu-Hammer

An entrepreneur, Ebenezer Akarah, says Nigeria’s untapped charcoal industry holds key to powering the economy and lifting the citizens out of poverty.

Akarah in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Wednesday in Abuja, said charcoal is powering other economies, underscoring the need for the Federal Government to key into.

According to him, the global charcoal industry is estimated at $2 billion, paradoxically, it’s on the back burner of Nigeria’s economic policies.

“When the federal government announced at the 2025 Forest Economy Summit, it planned to unlock 2 billion Dollars from Nigeria’s forest economy, it sounded like real progress.

“While advocating a sustainable forest economy, the government should avoid restricting charcoal exports, a forest product with huge export potential, doing so is like finding treasure but blocking the path to it.

”We can’t talk about trees into trillions while sidelining the very product tied most directly to them.

“The untapped charcoal industry in Nigeria holds the key to lifting many Nigerians out of poverty and powering the economy. There is need to explore this economy to transform the country for good,” he said.

Akarah, who is the Chief Executive Officer/Founder, Bricks to Crib Company, said the federal government lifted the charcoal export ban in mid-2023, lamenting that it wasn’t a full repeal rather conditional.

He said the Nigeria Customs Service (NIS) Circular No. 8 mandated that all charcoal exports must now carry approval letters from the Ministry of Finance and identification from forest officers at ports.

The country, he said, risked another full ban if it missed the EU’s December 2025 deadline for non-deforestation sourcing.

“Charcoal though often controversial is more than fuel. It is a biofuel, an export asset, and a source of livelihood for rural communities.

“In a nation battling climate change; there’s a clear paradox, our forests are shrinking, yet charcoal remains invisible in national policy.

“By refusing to classify it as a formal commodity, Nigeria is missing the chance to regulate its production, establish export frameworks, and set price benchmarks,” he said.

The expert said the result of this would be continued forest loss driven by decades of unsustainable practices and a lack of regulatory structure.

”We must therefore move from damage control to sustainability, and this requires supporting afforestation, reforestation and policies that recognise forest-based livelihoods rather than erase them.

“Ignoring these systems means losing more than trees; we may lose communities, culture, and people. The shift we need is to see forest products like charcoal not as threats but as assets managed responsibly, regulated wisely, and integrated into a greener economy that serves everyone, especially the next generation.

“Charcoal is powering other economies; Namibia for example, a country of just three million people with a semi-arid landscape exported 270,000 tonnes of charcoal worth $80.5 million in 2023.

“Compare that to Nigeria, with a far larger population and richer forests, which exported only 443 tonnes that same year, valued at just $119,470.

“Charcoal is more than just fuel; it is revenue, jobs, and foreign exchange. As the world shifts toward sustainable biomass, the answer isn’t restriction but smart regulation. Nigeria has the potential to lead, but only if we build a smarter and sustainable policy.” (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Deborah Coker