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.
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