Nigerian Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsdeen Usman has disclosed that with the upsurge in the local production of rice in Nigeria, the custom revenue often generated from the importation of the staple food has dropped to about 50 percent.

Shamsdeen made the disclosure in Lagos yesterday at a joint press briefing organised by the ministry and Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) ahead of 19th Nigerian Economic Summit slated for Abuja in September 2013.

According to the minister, the transformation effort of the current administration has been yielding positive result especially in agricultural sector to the point that rice importation which used to be a common phenomenon has indeed dropped drastically.

“The transformation agenda of the present administration has yielded lots of positive results in the area of agriculture. In fact the area of rice production, there has been drastic reduction in its importation. There are even fears that the revenue being generated by custom from the importation has drastically reduced by 50 percent.
This is a fact you can cross-check from the banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria. They are the ones monitoring it,” Shamsdeen said.

The Federal Government had prior to this time set 2014 deadline in the importation of rice as it insisted that the nation has the capacity to produce the staple food in abundance without importing from other countries.
Dr Shamsdeen added that already, agriculture has contributed 40 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product between 2011 and 2012.

fyneguy: Go to Daleko and see if local rice is more than imported

Sincere 9gerian: Great! But how are we sure smuggling is not increasing and slowing the intended benefits of the policy

Pukkah: Why would a Minister talk in such a general and nebulous terms like this on a subject that's this important.

Why would a Minister choose not to quote figures but would rather have me check with the banks or CBN?

I want this policy to succeed but the Minister shouldn't sell us a dummy the way someone said the Ministry of Solid Minerals had employed a whopping 2 million people.

This Minister or another one should tell us in specific terms:

1. When the implementation of this good policy started.

2. The locations of the rice farms.

3. How the government has supported the farms to achieve results.

4. The number of metric tonnes that have been produced and the year(s).

5. The exact decline in Customs revenue and to compensate for this, the (estimated) number of people that have been employed by the farms.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that what the Minister appears to have relied on - reduction in rice importation - is not a sufficient reason to conclude that there is an 'upsurge in local production of rice'. For example, have people found other substitutes? Have importers started evading duties? Etc

fyneguy: Go to Daleko and see if local rice is more than imported

Sincere 9gerian:
That is even my worry. It seems smuggling is increasing and the customs are not doing enough. Most of the challenges now are coming from the largely incompetent security architecture due to decades of quota system. From Boko Haram, oil theft, smuggling, kidnappings,etc the story is the same. Lapses, lapses and incompetence everywhere. Though the army and police have improved a bit but they all still have a very long way to go, especially the police, customs, immigration, navy and prisons.

Obiagelli:
them wann fool us again 200 million mumu things

ochejoseph:
Oby oby ooooooby how many times did I call u .okay seriously
I won't mind paying yr bills to visit a mega rice Farm in Kebbi,kogi or Taraba ! May be u will refrain my antagonism . Happy Sunday in Advance

ochejoseph:
He added that farmers in ten leading rice
producing States of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara,
Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Niger and
Kogi, received free 50kg of seeds, two bags of
NPK fertilizer and one bag of urea.
He noted that farmers were also assisted with
water pumps to bring water into their fields, and
that the results of the initiative have been
groundbreaking.
Adesina said a total paddy production for
2012/2013 farming season is estimated at
1,760,364 metric tonnes.

www.dailyindependentnig.com/2013/06/dry-season-rice-farming-injects-n77b-into-nigerian-economy-adesina/

Pukkah: Why would a Minister talk in such a general and nebulous terms like this on a subject that's this important.

Why would a Minister choose not to quote figures but would rather have me check with the banks or CBN?

I want this policy to succeed but the Minister shouldn't sell us a dummy the way someone said the Ministry of Solid Minerals had employed a whopping 2 million people.

This Minister or another one should tell us in specific terms:

1. When the implementation of this good policy started.

2. The locations of the rice farms/mills.

3. How the government has supported the farms to achieve results.

4. The number of metric tonnes that have been produced and the year(s).

5. The exact decline in Customs revenue and to compensate for this, the (estimated) number of people that have been employed by the farms.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that what the Minister appears to have relied on - reduction in rice importation - is not a sufficient reason to conclude that there is an 'upsurge in local production of rice'. For example, have people found other substitutes? Have importers started evading duties? Etc

owolabifunke14: Are the local rice stone free? I've not tasted a local rice since 2002

Sincere 9gerian: Great! But how are we sure smuggling is not increasing and slowing the intended benefits of the policy

Pukkah:

Nice references I must admit.

But does the market show that 50% of rice supply is 'Made In Nigeria' and not Thailand?

You see, talk is cheap and government officials have been known to make bogus and false claims.

Where is the 50% rice in the market?

If a whopping 50% of imported rice has been replaced by home grown rice, the market must feel it in so many ways. Can we have just one of these many ways other than government sources?

collynzo2: If it will take a ban on rice importation and another Dangote monopoly for rice to be locally produced, so be it! I served in a rice producing area of Kwara state, the only rice mill they have there has been closed for years, they go through difficulties processing the rice locally to an even manageable standard. If a businessman like Dangote can set up a mill there and buy harvested rice from farmers, the farmers will be inspired to produce more and make money for their families, youths of that village will be able to get employment working in the mill, transporters will make a living exporting rice to other parts of the country from that village. A win-win situation.