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More bags of rice smuggled under Buhari presidency- Senate laments
The Nigerian Senate Committee on Agriculture has lamented that more bags of rice of two million metric tons are imported or smuggled into Nigeria
The Nigerian Senate Committee on Agriculture has lamented that more bags of rice of two million metric tons are imported or smuggled into Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency.
While speaking at a meeting with a multi-stakeholder group on rice council advocacy bill promotion, the Vice-chairman of the committee, Muhammad Enagi, disclosed that the production of milled rice in Nigeria was estimated to amount to five million metric tons.
More so, the meeting was organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – Global Environment Facility (GEF), in collaboration with Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), among others.
“In Spite of this, 6.7 million metric tons of rice is consumed in Nigeria annually, resulting in a deficit of about two million metric tons which is either imported or smuggled illegally into the country,” said Mr. Enagi.
Mr. Enagi lamented he sponsored a bill to establish the National Rice Development Council of Nigeria to guide the rice research, comprehensive development of the rice sector, and the organization of the rice stakeholders to enhance local production.
According to him, Nigeria should consider implementing a rice development council and a comprehensive national rice development roadmap to guide the country into self-sufficiency and export. This, in other, to reduced the bags of rice smuggled into Nigeria under Buhari presidency
”With our natural competitive advantage in the area of rice production, Nigeria should put in place a National Rice Development Council and a comprehensive national rice development roadmap that will guide us not only into a regime of self-sufficiency in rice production but also for export,” reasoned the minister.
Mr. Enagi added, ”The Nigerian rice industry exists in the abstract as there appears to be no form of coordination in the absence of a properly structured rallying point.”
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