Dare devil persons believed to be smugglers seem to have over whelmed the authorities and have taken over the Nigerian rice market. Related to this is the flooding of the country with toxic and expired products. With the country’s porous borders they appear to strangulate the government’s plans to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production.
In this wise, stakeholders have urged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to curb smuggling while calling on NAFDAC to take urgent action by inspecting rice stored at several locations across the country. The activities of the smugglers especially supply of expired and poisonous rice to unsuspecting consumers, the group noted could rapidly develop into a major health disaster if left unchecked. Drewing the attention of the president, the group solicited for immediate and curative actions by the agencies concerned.
Nigeria currently has an unmet demand of more than 3 million tonnes annually and owing to inadequate local production, Nigeria’s rice needs are currently restricted for legal imports due to high import tariff and lack of cohesive policy.
Nigerian importers are expected to pay full tariff of 70 per cent compared to smugglers who enjoy a free ride into the market, with little tariffs in neighbouring Cameroon and Republic of Benin, taking advantage of porous borders. This is even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had since restricted access to foreign exchange for rice imports, among other products, choking the import supply chain.
Recently, the National Rice Millers Association of Nigeria (NRMAN), had complained that the NCS erred in its decision to lift the ban on importation of rice through the land borders. The Chairman of the association said if the customs succeeds in its decision, it would destroy Nigeria’s rice value chain attained by the previous administration.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
