FG To Use NIN For Verification, Others As It Begins Sale Of 50kg Rice At ₦‎40,000

By Ayodele Ifasakin 

The Federal Government has said potential buyers would have to present their National Identification Number (NIN) as commenced the sale of 30, 000 metric tonnes of milled rice to Nigerians at a subsidised rate of N40,000 per 50 kilograme bag.

FG To Use NIN For Verification, Others As It Begins Sale Of 50kg Rice At ₦‎40,000

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, inaugurated the sale of the subsidised milled rice on Thursday in Abuja, noting that the exercise would be carried out across the country.

Kyari said the rice intervention was timely due to the times and current challenges in the country. He said that the Federal Government was aware of the potential challenges associated with the sales of an important staple such as rice, at this critical period.

Verification of buyers

Kyari said that a multi-disciplinary machinery of government had been deployed to ensure the transparency, wider reach, and success of the exercise.

- According to him, the process is structured to ensure that one person does not get more than one 50kg bag of rice.

- He said that intending beneficiaries would be “verified using relevant identification mediums such as the NIN and phone numbers to forestall multiple accesses to the commodity by fraudulent individuals at the detriment of other citizens.”

“In view of the above, I urge our dear citizens to cooperate with the relevant agencies of government who will try to serve you to achieve this great initiative of government.

“It is expected that with the injection of 30,000MT (1000 trucks of 30MT each of this important staple into Nigeria’s food balance sheet, it will not only crash the price of rice but also other closer food substitutes and alternatives,” he said.

Process of purchase

Highlighting the process Nigerians would have to follow to purchase the rice, the Director of Strategic Grains Reserve, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Haruna Sule, said civil servants could access the grains from the point of sale with their Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

“Once you have any of these three, you present it to the sales operators and it is logged on the platform that has been created.

“After this, you proceed to pay electronically with your ATM; once the payment is done, it is linked to the initial sales operator and it shows that you have paid; then a receipt will be issued with a code number,” he explained.

- With the code number, he said the buyer will be issued with a treasury receipt to show that he or she has paid to government.

- The buyer is then given a receipt which shows point of collection and time of collection; this is to eliminate any form of stampede.

- He noted that the point of collection is different from the point of sales, adding that “when you get to the collection point, you present your code to our officials and you will be given a bag of rice.”

- In Abuja, he said the plan is to set up about five to six sales points across the FCT and the duration of the distribution will be for the period they are able to finish sales.

What you should know

The sale of subsidised rice was first announced by the Minister of Information, Idris Mohammed, in July. Following the announcement, the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs Human Resources Management Department asked civil servants to register for the sale of the food item.

The government thereafter announced that it had halted the plan without any explanation about the reason.

Lagos, Kebbi, 16 Others Are Largest Rice Producing States As Nigeria Becomes Largest Rice Producer In Africa

From Nigeria being the world’s second largest rice importer years back, the narrative appears to have changed as the country continues to take steps to ramp up domestic production.

According to a recent report, Nigeria has overtaken Egypt as the largest rice producer in Africa. The Director-General, Africa Rice Center, Benin Republic, Dr Harold Roy-Macauley, who disclosed this, said Nigeria is now the largest rice producer at four million tonnes a year. Egypt was producing 4.3 tonnes annually but the country’s production had reduced by almost 40 per cent this year. Africa produces an average of 14.6 million tonnes of rough rice annually, he explained.

Indeed, the remarkable achievement recorded by the country in the area of rice production, as disclosed by Roy-Macauley, was the outcome of robust collaboration between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, that focused on areas in the agriculture sector where the country has comparative advantage, in their quest to drastically reduce the country’s huge import bill.

A report by Lagos-based CSL Stockbrokers Limited showed that the central bank and the federal government have been making substantial efforts to encourage domestic cultivation of rice and to completely eliminate imports using incentives such as subsidised loans, cheap fertilisers, free farm land, and tax rebates.

Presently, the CBN has restricted importers of 43 items, which included rice, from accessing dollars from the interbank market and bureaux de change. Also, other fiscal policies are making it increasingly unfavorable for the importation of rice. Rice imports through land borders are restricted, while imports that come in through the ports attract sizeable import duties and levies.

Currently, 18 states are reputed as reliable rice producers in the country. They include Kebbi, Benue, Ebonyi, Ekiti, the Federal Capital Territory, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina.

Others are: Lagos, Nasarawa, Taraba, Kogi, Zamfara, Ogun, Niger, Kwara and Sokoto.

Clearly, these policies have led to a decline in imports and have resulted in significant rise in the price of imported rice.

Also, the CBN through its Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) as well as its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) has continued to support genuine local rice manufacturers, in line with its development finance function.

ThisDay