Nigeria
is spending about N365bn annually on the importation of 2.1 million
metric tonnes of milled rice, the Federal Government has said.
According to the government, the country
is currently the largest importer of rice in the world, a development
it notes as adversely affecting its agricultural sector.
A document obtained by our correspondent
from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on Friday stated, “Nigeria is
the largest importer of rice in the world, spending N365bn per year
importing 2.1 million MT of milled rice.”
The government, in a bid to reduce the
nation’s import dependence, had to raise tariff on imported brown rice
and finished rice, it was learnt.
Our correspondent also gathered from the
ministry that private investors had set up 13 new rice mills with a
total capacity of 240,000MT.
This, the ministry officials said, was
part of measures aimed at reducing the huge capital outflows from the
nation’s economy through the importation of rice.
The Director, Policy Research and
Statistics in the ministry, Dr. Umar Hussaini, stated that in the last
one year, the Federal Government had produced 690,000MT in the main
season, and would have done 1.2 million MT by the end of the dry season.
He said the government was “currently
securing financing of over $1.2bn from the China Exim Bank for 100
large-scale rice processing plants with a total capacity of 2.1 million
MT, which is enough to substitute imports.”
“For the first time in our history as a
nation, Nigeria will have the full industrial capacity to mill
internationally competitive quality rice,” Hussaini said.
The document stated that agriculture
import dependency was hurting the economy, stressing that yearly,
Nigeria was importing over $11bn worth of wheat, rice, sugar and fish.
“Nigeria’s food imports are growing at
an unsustainable rate of 11 per cent per annum. Relying on the import of
expensive food on global markets fuels domestic inflation,” it stated.
It added that excessive imports were
putting pressure on the naira, adding that Nigeria was importing what it
could produce in abundance.
Credit: Punch Nigeria
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