New Telegraph

Border reopening: Taming rising prices of local rice

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the reopening of four land borders with Nigeria’s neighbouring countries with ban on rice importation still in force. TAIWO HASSAN, in this report, examines the implications of both policies on local rice production

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the reopening of four borders with Nigeria’s neighbouring countries with ban on rice importation still in force. However, agric stakeholders are emphasising that it’s time for price adjustments in parboiled rice in tandem with the objectives of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to boost availability and sufficiency for Nigerians. Precisely, when the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari mooted the idea of sufficiency in rice policy in the country by ordering the CBN, through the ABP, to support Nigerian farmers willing to go into rice production with intervention funds, the objective was solely to ensure availability of local parboiled rice and affordable price mechanism. In addition, government also emphasised that the reason for closing the borders for one year and four months was more of economic interest and security of the country. In fact, the fundamental truth behind the country’s land border policy apart from economic purpose and security could be traced to plans for development, considering the germane inputs of the CBN through its huge investments in supporting agriculture following decades of neglect by past governments. President Muhammadu Buhari had explained the rationale behind the land border closure where he expressed great concern over the smuggling of rice and other agric products. Mr. President said that activities of smugglers threatened the self-sufficiency in rice production attained by his administration’s agricultural policies, thus lauding CBN as the think-thank behind Nigeria’s agric revolution.

Recap

The road towards attaining food sufficiency in rice production in the country could be traced to the present administration, when in 2015 the CBN unveiled its ABP to boost agric and manufacturing value chains in line with the Federal Government’s economic agenda to improve the revenue earning from the country’s non-oil sector. Particularly, that same year, the CBN launched the ABP in 14 states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Adamawa, Plateau, Lagos, Ogun, Cross-Rivers and Ebonyi for rice and wheat farmers to advance their status from small holder farmers to commercial or large growers. According to the apex bank, the effort, which was part of its development agenda, would not only create millions of jobs but also capable of lifting thousands of small holder farmers out of poverty in the country. During the flag-off in Birni- Kebbi, Kebbi State, the CBN set aside N40 billion out of N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (MSMEDF) to be given to farmers at single digit interest rate of maximum nine per cent per annum under the ABP. However, in the space of five years, the ABP has demonstrated a surgical solution to Nigeria’s quest to boost her non-oil sector profile by empowering millions of farmers in the country’s agric sector.

Worrisome

However, it is now worrisome for agric stakeholders and government and its agencies that despite the rice revolution campaigns to boost sufficiency with the fiscal and monetary support and political will, the price hike in local rice has negated the ABP scheme with Nigerians lamenting the skyrocketing price of the commodity in the markets. Notwithstanding, the policy makers and the Nigerian populace had thought that by now, cheap and affordable parboiled rice should be in circulation based on the enormous funding and back up by the ABP scheme.

Lists of banned items

At the recently held Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) meeting in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Presidency reistated that there was still enforcement ban on the importation of poultry, rice, and other products along the reopened land borders at Seme in Southwest, Illela in So-koto State, Maigatari in Northwest and Mfun in the South South. The Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, while confirming this to journalists, explained that these agroallied products; poultry, rice, and other products importation ban remained in force.

Stakeholders’ comments

Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, disclosed that the inability of the Federal Government to protect local producers in the country’s agric sector in the past caused dearth of local capacity and influx of smuggling of foreign agricultural products. Particularly, Yusuf explained that smuggling made local capacity in the agricultural sector to drop to 10 per cent in terms of capacity utilization, thereby causing indigenous producers inability to meet local demand for agricultural products. He added that with support and the political will from government, local rice should be affordable and cheap for Nigerians. The past Chairman, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Group of the LCCI and valuechain operator in the agribusiness sector, Abiodun Oladapo, in a chat with New Telegraph in Lagos, said that the high price of local rice was not justifiable, saying that government needed to do more in the areas of smuggling and continued importation of foreign agricultural products despite the border reopening. He noted that smuggling of foreign rice into the country was negating competitiveness of local ones despite the ban placed on some of these products, which still find their way into the Nigerian market. In his submission, the National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc Kabir Ibrahim, said in an interview that the ABP was a turning point in Nigeria’s agriculture, but added that causes of price hike in rice and other agro commodities in the country had to do with insecurity that has disrupted the country’s agric space. He raised the alarm that local farmers were now very scared to go to their farms to do dry season farming and harvest crops over bandits and Boko Haram attacks. He predicted that the murder of local farmers recently would definitely affect the gains made on rice production in the country’s agric sector.

Last line

With the reopening of land borders for businesses, the prices of local rice should drop and be affordable for Nigerians, who had lauded the CBN for introducing ABP scheme for rice development based on government insistent that rice import remain ban.

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