FG’s New Policy On Food Imports

President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent directive to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to restrict granting foreign exchange (forex) to food importers could be said to be a right policy in the right direction if the amount of money Nigeria spends on food importation is considered.
Currently, Nigeria spends about US$22 billion on food imports annually. Rice alone, imported from Thailand and India, accounts for about US$1.65 billion, thus, making Nigeria one of the world’s largest importers of rice. This is aside other imported consumable items like wheat, fish, palm oil and processed foods which Nigeria ordinarily should have capacity to produce and even export.
The humongous amount Nigeria spends on food importation, if properly utilised on infrastructure, can build hundreds of kilometers of roads, or if channelled into agriculture, can provide job opportunities for millions of unemployed youths. We can, therefore, understand the import of President Buhari’s directive to the CBN.
However, we fear that the directive, laudable and well conceived as it may be, is capable of worsening food security and exacerbate the already harsh economic situation in the country unless necessary measures are put in place.
We say this because domestic production of many food items in the country has not been able to meet the demand, thus, necessitating their importation. For instance, local demands for rice are in excess of six million metric tonnes while domestic production is just about four million metric tonnes, leaving a huge gap of two million metric tonnes. How does the nation make up for the shortfall without imports?
While we agree that it serves the country no useful benefit to continue to import simple commodities as tomatoes, palm oil, fish and other consumable items, we observe that the right environment and critical infrastructures to support large-scale farming and reduce food importation are currently in short supply.
The Tide notes that there is a cluster of challenges currently plaguing agricultural production in the country and which has pushed the prices of food items beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians. Such challenges include pervasive insecurity, severe flooding, lack of proper storage, dearth of infrastructures such as good roads, regular power supply, good transportation system, as well as inadequate funding of fertilisers vis a vis its distribution bottleneck, among others.
Enforcing the forex restriction policy without addressing these challenges would, therefore, add a new and scary dimension to the mix.
We insist that a complete ban on forex for food imports, without corresponding increase in local production of food, would increase the prices of food items and even encourage smuggling and proliferation of poor quality food items in the country, especially those that the country lacks the capacity to produce.
While we wholly align with the Federal Government’s self-reliance policy on food, we think that the policy requires a gradual, step-by-step approach as against this haphazard method that could put the country in a mess.
Considering the importance of food to human existence, and the fact that about 35 percent of business ventures in the country are into the food value chain, accounting for well over 3.5 million jobs, any policy that will impact on the food sector must be well thought out, well measured and methodically implemented.
Much as the Buhari administration is wont to ensure self-sufficiency in food production in the country, we think that the starting point would be to move more swiftly in the area of infrastructure delivery, most especially, of power, good roads and transportation system.
Without these basic infrastructures in place, and the political will to deal with the twin evil of insecurity and perennial flooding in the country, the restriction order placed on forex for food imports may end up eliciting counter productive effects that may plunge Nigeria into an era of food crisis.