Association Lauds Ban On Land Border Rice Imports

The Association of Rice
Investors (ARI) has lauded the Federal Government for banning the importation of rice through land borders.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos on Monday, the Association’s National President, Mr Tunji Owoeye, said that the policy would remove the major obstacles faced by local rice producers in the country.
Owoeye said that the biggest challenge to rice farmers in the country had been removed by the government, adding that the Federal Government has listened to the voice of reason in taking such decision to protect local rice producers.
He said that the decision was a clear demonstration that the Federal Government was ready for economic diversification by promoting local rice production through policy reversal and other intervention supports, adding that the initial lifting of the ban by the Comptroller General of Customs, Colonel Hammed Ali (rtd) had boosted smuggling of the grain from neigbouring countries, which enhanced the revenue generation of those countries which also imported the rice.
He said that the association had urged the Federal Government before now to ban the importation of rice through land borders, but the government according to him, had claimed that the Association should allow goods to move freely within ECOWAS countries into the country.
He said that Nigeria’s land borders are porous and there was lact of capacity to track all the rice that enter the country through the land borders, but now that this decision had been taken the Federal Government needs to be decisive in policing the nation’s land borders for effective implementation of the policy.
Owoye said that through the massive intervention supports from the government, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry (BoI) and other bodies, the insufficient gap in the rice production would be drastically reduced to the barest minimum in the country.
He said farmers especially rice farmers have been benefitting from those funds such as rice farmers in Northern part of the country who also enjoyed advantage of irrigation.
He said that through the intervention support, many moribund rice mills across the country have been revived and were fully operational.