Nigeria’s smallholder farmers have received a new lease of life as the country introduces the National Export Trading Company (NETCO), a bold initiative that seeks to revive the long-abandoned marketing board model, this time with a modern, market-driven twist. Once a central institution in Nigeria’s agricultural export landscape, the marketing board had fallen into disuse for decades due to its inefficiencies and exploitative legacy. NETCO now reimagines that model, aiming to support farmers rather than extract from them.
“Whereas old boards maintained a monopoly over export crops, NETCO fosters competition and inclusivity, opening doors for cooperatives, aggregators, and MSMEs.”
Marketing Board as a tool for extraction
Across Africa and parts of Asia, the marketing board was one of the many tools used by colonial administrations to extract wealth from agricultural producers. From Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone to Ghana and Nigeria, these institutions were established under the guise of stabilising commodity markets but ultimately served to entrench state control and suppress farmer incomes.
During the colonial period, the British implemented indirect rule in Sierra Leone and other African colonies. Paramount chiefs enforced tax collection, upheld local justice, and maintained order on behalf of the British Crown. Meanwhile, farmers, particularly those growing cocoa and coffee, were required to sell their produce to marketing boards established by colonial authorities. One such board was created in 1949, ostensibly to protect farmers from volatile global markets. But, as Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson recount in Why Nations Fail, the reality proved quite different. “Prices for agricultural commodities fluctuated wildly over time. Cocoa prices might be high one year but low the next,” they wrote. “The justification for marketing boards was that they, not the farmers, would absorb the price fluctuations… It seemed a good idea in principle. The reality was very different, however.” In practice, the marketing board became a mechanism for heavily taxing farmers, capturing surpluses during price booms, and offering minimal support during busts.
A similar critique was advanced by Gavin Williams, a former professor at the University of Oxford in his seminal 1985 article, later republished in 2007, where he wrote: “Since their inception, Nigerian marketing boards have been used to serve various interests and purposes, hardly any of which have benefited the producers.” Established officially in 1947, Nigeria’s commodity boards were an extension of wartime institutions such as the West African Produce Control Board. Their operations, however, rarely served the interests of farmers. Rather, they entrenched extractive structures that siphoned wealth from rural producers under the banner of price stabilisation and state-led development.
Following independence, leaders such as Siaka Stevens in Sierra Leone and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe failed to reform the boards to truly benefit producers. Instead, they repurposed them for political control and resource extraction, often to an even greater extent than their colonial predecessors.
Read also: Nigeria’s first National Export Trading Company set to berth
How NETCO differs from its colonial antecedents
Against this historical backdrop, a natural question arises: how does NETCO differ from its colonial antecedents?
Set up by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in collaboration with the Nigeria Commodity Exchange, Afreximbank, and the Africa Trade and Distribution Company, NETCO aims to support smallholder farmers and export-focused MSMEs by providing market intelligence, logistics, finance, and access to global markets.
According to Chika Mbonu, Business Analyst at Arise News, the initiative could be transformative if executed with discipline and integrity.
“This new initiative is a game changer for small exporters and Nigerian farmers, if it’s done properly,” Mbonu noted. “Nigerian farmers and exporters have struggled with post-harvest losses, warehousing, finance, packaging, and market access. This new company is designed to solve those problems and help them sell globally. But like many Nigerian projects, the risk is in the execution. If it fails, it becomes another ‘we told you so’ moment.”
He further stressed the need for institutional rigour. “Our problem in Nigeria isn’t that we can’t think or generate good ideas—we can. The issue is always implementation. Hopefully, with Afreximbank involved, this one will succeed.”
In many respects, NETCO mirrors the structure of the former marketing boards. It aggregates farm produce, facilitates exports, and acts as a conduit between rural farmers and foreign buyers. Government involvement remains, albeit in a more collaborative framework involving trade-focused institutions like Afreximbank, rather than state monopolies.
However, the differences are significant. Unlike the price-fixing regime of the past, NETCO embraces a market-driven approach, allowing producers to benefit from real-time global pricing. Whereas old boards maintained a monopoly over export crops, NETCO fosters competition and inclusivity, opening doors for cooperatives, aggregators, and MSMEs.
Another notable improvement is the focus on efficient, commercially viable payment systems, contrasting sharply with the delayed, opaque processes that plagued the former boards. Additionally, NETCO’s strong private-sector partnerships represent a structural shift from the bureaucratic inefficiencies that defined the earlier era. Its alignment with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) also places it firmly within a liberalised trade framework, far removed from the protectionist tendencies of the 20th-century model.
Perhaps most importantly, NETCO is being built with access to market intelligence, export training, and logistics support, positioning Nigerian producers to compete, not merely comply in a global trading system.
While its success is far from guaranteed, NETCO could be the institutional catalyst Nigeria has long needed to transform its non-oil export sector. If properly implemented, it may very well serve as the first true pro-farmer marketing board in Nigeria’s history.
