The new government of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has been urged
to stop the importation of rice into Nigeria as this will save the
country billions of dollars annually.
A former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Engr. Charles Ugwuh,
stated that Nigeria should declare a five-year import ban on rice,
during which it should concentrate efforts to produce enough to meet
national needs.
Ugwuh, who spoke in Abuja, noted that during the five year period,
the Nigerian Customs Service should ensure that the country’s rice
sector was protected against smuggling, adding that there should be a
viable rewards system to encourage patriotic zeal in producing rice
locally.
He said, “We call for a total ban on rice imports for at least five
years to enable Nigeria produce its own food with the enormous natural
resources and endowments we have. The nation can be self-sufficient in
rice. We can eliminate food imports and save $9bn annually on wheat,
rice, sugar, and fish.
“Nigeria cannot afford to waste such a huge amount and export vital
jobs overseas, when massive unemployment is such a great challenge
threatening our national survival. We can grow rice and save the over
$2.6bn per year (that) we currently spend on rice imports.”
The former minister explained that Nigeria has suitable ecology to grow rice paddy in virtually all parts of the country.
He said with dedication, perseverance and national commitment,
Nigeria could grow and process rice to meet its domestic needs, and
indeed, export to other African countries.
Ugwuh noted that a ready market exists for over 15 million tons from the West through Central and Southern Africa.
He said, “Nigeria has been striving hard to grow its capacity in
paddy production and processing through massive investments in
production infrastructure, power, water, irrigation facilities, dams and
processing industries and technology.
“At this moment, Nigeria has made serious start, but the country is
yet uncompetitive and needs even greater investments to compete with
other countries in South East Asia, which have been producing rice for
decades and have evolved a culture of rice at low cost and high yields
that are difficult to match.
“Unfortunately, each time we make earnest efforts to grow our rice
capacity to displace imports, our traditional rice suppliers from India,
Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, among others, double up their
efforts through Diaspora merchants to beat us down.”
He explained that the Asian countries had high production
efficiencies, better quality milled rice that were able to weaken
Nigeria’s resolve and erode its competitiveness, forcing the country to
buy from them and to abandon all well-laid plans, investments and
import-substitution strategies.
No comments:
Post a Comment