Rice imports down to 438 mt in 9 years
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Foreign rice imports dropped from 1.2 million metric tonnes (mt) in 2014 to 438 mt in 2022 as result of increased local production, the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN) has said.
RIPAN Director General Andy Ekwelem disclosed in Abuja that more than 100 large-scale integrated rice processing facilities have been established in the country to ramp up production of the national staple food.
“The factory price of local rice remains at N31,000 [per 50kg bag], and Nigerians may purchase it at higher prices because of the high cost of transporting the goods to the market and the high cost of fertilizer, among others,” he said.
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Progressive import reduction in nine years
“Before the current administration, Nigeria officially allowed imported rice. As of the last quarter of 2014, the official rice import from Thailand was about 1.24 million metric tons; by 2015, these imports had dropped to about 644,131 metric tons, and in 2016, they fell to 58,260 metric tons,” Ekwelem added, per Daily Post reporting.
“In 2017, the imports further dropped to 23,192 tons, but by 2022, it dropped to an all-time low of 438 tons.”
The average price of 50kg bag of rice currently ranges from N32,000 to N50,000.
200 rice brands now produced locally, says CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed in December 2021 that more than 4.1 million small holder farmers had benefited from its Anchor Borrower Progrmame (ABP) since inception in 2015 and over 200 brands of rice were been produced locally.
CBN Assistant Director, Head Development Finance Office Kaduna branch, Aminu Muhammad, made the disclosure at an enlightenment session with Organised Labour and Civil Society.
The session held in Kaduna educated North West stakeholders on the various intervention schemes initiated under CBN Governor Godwin Emefeile for them to see how they could benefit.
Muhammad said 706,719 beneficiaries nationwide had been counted in the N50 billion CBN Targeted Credit Facility (TCF), with 17,000 of them in Kaduna State comprising 638,70 households.
A total 37,571 businesses had benefited from the agriculture segment of the intervention programmes and 107,932 jobs were created, he added, urging the session attendees not to be left out.
CBN interventions
CBN Cooperate Communication Director Nwanisobi Osita reiterated in a virtual linkup that Emefeile has a five-year policy thrust to build the economy in a sustainable and inclusive manner viable for everyone.
“CBN is working. We see what has happened to the Nigerian economy, but because it is a mono-product depending solely on oil for its foreign exchange, it is susceptible to shock,” he said.
“Anytime there is external shock, it transmitted to our economy immediately, and that is why we had recessions in 2015 – and in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic recording negative 6.10 in Q2 of 2020 minus 3.62 in Q3.
“We were able to move to a positive trajectory but it was fragile. The economy today is booming in Q3 in 2021 by 3.04 per cent.
“All these interventions programmes are geared towards stimulating Nigeria’s economy and that is what CBN in concrete terms is doing to get our economy to grow in a sustainable manner.”
Issa Aremu, Director General of Michael Imoudu National Institute for National Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, commended the federal government for “a return to National Development Plan after decades of ad hoc neo-liberal sectoral reforms” adding that “nations that failed to plan only muddle through to fail.”
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari devised the new plan that would outlive his administration and had shown that “statesmanship is about nation building not the next election as some state actors tend to poison the polity.”
Aremu urged Labour to “constructively support and engage the plan which enjoyed the inputs of Labour at preparation through its participatory inclusive process.”
He also applauded the CBN for using monetary policies to set the tone for the framework for the new National Development Plan in terms of stable macro-economic factors, value addition, and employment creation.
He urged trade unions to engage the CBN and take advantage of all its interventions to enhance the welfare of their members.
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