Abuja Rice Pyramid should have been a thumbs up for the government’s agric programme, except that Nigerians can’t afford rice again.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Until the Abuja Rice Pyramid which was about two weeks, a bag of the product goes for N25,000 or less. But when the Federal Government decided to showcase Nigeria’s rice exploit by building a pyramid of rice, the price of the commodity jumped beyond the reach of the more than 100 million poor citizens. It is now N35,000 or more, more than the N30,000 minimum wage, which some states have not even agreed to pay.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been funding rice production in the country through the Anchor Borrowers Programme, an interest-free loan to rice farmers. But many of them rarely pay back.
For instance, Mohammed Augie, chairman of the Kebbi State chapter of the Rice Farmer Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), said out of the 70,000 farmers that benefited from the loans in 2015 and 2017, only about 200 were able to repay as of August 2021.
In Kano, the RIFAN chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Haruna Aliyu, said 80 per cent of the loan beneficiaries defaulted in the repayment.
But Abuja claimed the Anchor Borrowers Programme is working, claiming rice production is increasing by over 7.5 million metric tons yearly, from less than four million metric tons recorded in 2015.
The data, perhaps, spurs President Muhammadu Buhari to unveil the Abuja Rice Pyramid to show the government’s achievements in rice production. But analysts wondered why the volume of rice the government brags about does not reflect in the price going down. They say the Abuja Rice Pyramid must be a charade, otherwise, it ought to force the price of the product down. They suspect that bags of rice were mopped all over the country to build the Abuja rice pyramid.
But an economic analyst, Osaze Omoragbon, says the Abuja Rice Pyramid was not exclusively responsible for the high price of the product. “Yes, you may say they mop up the rice but how much rice did they mop in the country to affect the price of rice seriously? It could actually have been the reason and may not have been the reason.
“There are other issues to consider. There are logistical challenges. There are kidnappings across the country. You have insecurity across the country. We also heard that last year many farmers were slaughtered when they were going to their farms. It is not something we can sit down here and say that is the reason the price of rice is up. There is a general increase in price,” he claimed, in an interview with The Nigerian Xpress.
But a financial analyst, Kelechi Mgboji, said if Nigeria has that much rice to build THE Abuja Rice Pyramid, how come it hasn’t forced the price down.
Mgboji said: “Business is a factor of demand and supply. So, if the price is going up, you can ask yourself whether the supply is sufficient. Whether supply is even improved not just sufficient. If the price is going up as you said. Price tells the story. It tells if the supply has improved.”
