Vegetable oils are an essential ingredient for human diet. No food worth taste could be prepared without use of vegetable oils, Edible vegetable oil is oil produced from any of the edible oil bearing seeds that exist in nature.
The simplest and age-old method of obtaining edible vegetable oil has been simple mechanical extraction. The oil is squeezed out from oil seeds by applying mechanical pressure.
Many of these seeds are produced in large quantities in Nigeria. Amongst them are: groundnut, oil palm fruit, soybeans, cotton seed, sesame seed, melon seed, etc.
Due to the ban on the importation of vegetable oil, the nation has witnessed a deficit in supply of the product though much improvement has been recorded in the local production of the product.
Domestic consumption of vegetable oil in Nigeria was estimated at 1.6 million tonnes per annum with growth rate averaging five per cent in the last five years.
Current statistics indicate that the country produces about 1.3 million tonnes of various vegetable oils leaving a demand and supply gap of about 300,000 tonnes, the deficit is bridged by smuggling.

The market for vegetable oil and other form of cooking oil is national. With a population of over 220 million people and an estimated national population growth of 5.7% per annum, an average economic growth rate of 3.5% per annum in the past five (5) years, Nigeria has a large market for vegetable/ groundnut oil and its by-products.
The project is technically feasible and economically viable. Raw materials for this project are groundnut-seeds. These are locally available in abundance. The primary materials, that is, the seeds can be successfully grown in abundance in Nigeria.
This Vegetable oil project involves starting a small Vegetable oil production business in any big city of Nigeria which will produce premium quality vegetable oil to be sold in the local market, competing with a few existing brands. The plant will be equipped with modern equipment & technology in order to ensure the quality of the final products.
The SWOT analysis showed that the opportunities of the business outweigh the challenges and was concluded that Vegetable oil production idea is healthy and feasible in Nigeria