Expressing concern over the quality of rice being imported and consumed by Nigerians, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has described the product as substandard and harmful. Consequently, the group has called on the Nigeria Customs Service to take urgent measures to arrest the situation.
Consequently, the group has called on the Nigerian Customs Service to take urgent measures to arrest the situation.
According to a statement by Abulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, NGF’s Head, Media and Public Affairs, this concern was contained in a communiqué released after the last meeting held by the Forum in Abuja.
The Governors alleged that a large consignment of rice still making its way into the Nigerian market was imported in 2014 when the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan issued a liberal import licence regime to importers who were able to bring a substantial quantity of rice into the country using a waiver from the presidency at the time.
“Governors expressed concern that Nigerians were either falling sick or losing their lives to the consumption of this substandard produce even though some states have commenced elaborate efforts to produce rice in commercial quantity with a view to halting the nation’s over-reliance on staples that can be produced locally.
“Most governors of the states that have already embraced the back to land mantra of this administration frowned at the situation where Nigerians snubbed the locally produced commodity in preference for foreign ones which were most of the time stale, contaminated or even fake,” the statement said.
The Nigerian Customs Service was invited to shed light on the matter in order to proffer a solution to the problem.
Speaking on behalf of the Comptroller General, Col. Hameed Ali, the Deputy Comptroller General, Dangaladima Aminu, briefed the Forum saying there had been no alteration to the prohibition on the importation of rice through land borders, even though there was an increase in the smuggling of rice through Nigeria’s land borders.
He claimed that any quantity of rice which made its way into Nigeria through land routes was smuggled, adding that the smugglers were helped by border communities who alternated between motorcycles, canoes and rafts to smuggle contraband rice into the country.
“It may interest you to note that a motorcycle can make up to 30 trips with six 50kg bags of rice per night depending on the distance. And when the border communities are not smuggling the produce themselves, they are aiding or providing cover for smugglers.”
The Deputy Comptroller General also revealed that rice dealers had recorded great losses due to seizures by the customs authorities.
He further informed the governors that the Customs “takes the issue of smuggling of rice seriously, having identified the danger posed by it to the economic well-being and health hazards it constitutes to the Nigerian people.”
