Customs confiscates 206,835 bags of smuggled rice, arrests 344 smugglers
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Some 206,835 bags of smuggled rice worth N3.02 billion were seized by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) between May 2022 and May 2023.
NCS National Public Relations Officer Abdullahi Maiwada, a Chief Superintendent of Customs, confirmed that during the period a total 1,745 items comprising rice and others goods worth N1.7 billion were seized, which the Duty-Paid Value amounted to N4.74 billion.
The latest disclosure came as farmers decried rampant rice smuggling and urged the federal government to escalate the fight against a scourge hampering local production.
Maiwada said the most seizures were made in June 2022, which saw about 266 seizures of 13,775 bags of rice worth N260.54 million.
The highest number of seized bags occurred in September 2022, with 118 seizures of 96,312 bags of rice worth N295.88 million
February 2023 had the highest value of seizures (N420.84 million), comprising 172 seizures of 12,239 bags.
According to Maiwada, 344 suspected smugglers were arrested; comprising 291 between January and December 2022 and 53 between January and May 2023.
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Failures of porous borders
“We have our data and there is no country in the world that has stopped the activities of smugglers or smuggling 100 per cent. We also know how vast and porous the border lines are, and we know the number of human resources we have, even though more are coming,” Maiwada said, according to The PUNCH.
“Some are currently undergoing training and will be coming in the next few months. We also have facilities that are coming in. So we are doing everything possible to make sure that we curtail smuggling to the barest minimum.
“We are supporting what we are telling you now with data.
“This is the number we have seized, the quantity, value, duty and the duty-paid value as seen in the last column. We have the number of seizures of rice recorded in each month, the number of bags seized, which will be 50kg, we have the value and others, in the last one year.”
AFAN urges Customs to be proactive
All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) President Kabir Ibrahim urged the NCS to be proactive in protecting the borders, stressing the activities of rice smugglers depress domestic production of the national staple food.
“The smuggling of rice into Nigeria is counter-productive to indigenous production and this is not good for Nigerian farmers. Our institutions at the borders must rise up to the occasion,” he pleaded.
“The Nigeria Customs Service must be proactive. It must step up its game in managing Nigeria’s borders. We know they’ve been making seizures and arrests, but they must step this up.
“Can you smuggle such items easily into these neighbouring countries? We are losing money due to these activities and it must be checked. The amount lost as a result of rice smuggling into Nigeria is enormous, I can’t put a figure to it now, but it is huge.”
4.6 million rice farmers
The communiqué from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in March 2023 disclosed about N12.64 billion was released under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) between January and February 2023.
“The committee reviewed the performance of the bank’s various interventions aimed at stimulating production and productivity across the real sector. Between January and February 2023, the bank disbursed N12.65bn to three agricultural projects under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme,” the communique said.
“This brings the cumulative disbursement under the programme to N1.09tn to over 4.6 million smallholder farmers cultivating or rearing 21 agricultural commodities on an approved 6.02 million hectares of farmland across the country.”
Most ABP beneficiaries not farmers
AFAN in December 2022 said most beneficiaries of the billions of naira released by the CBN under its ABP were not to farmers.
The CBN denied the claim, but AFAN insisted the apex bank is finding it difficult to recover the loans because they were disbursed to people who are not into farming and are not captured in the AFAN database.
“Our members have benefitted from the programme, but most people who benefited from the ABP are not Nigerian farmers. I must confess that to you,” AFAN National Secretary Yunusa Yabwa said,
“That is why you see today that the CBN, NIRSAL, commercial banks, who were the channels for the distribution of this fund, are complaining that these beneficiaries are not repaying the loans.”