Sincere9gerian: The so called terminal operators should wake up and smell the coffin. The ports are for imports AND exports and not just for imports. We also need to create JOBS for our people.

Few days ago, I bought well milled, stone free, full bag (50 kg) Abakiliki rice for only N7,200 at Ogbete market. I couldn't believe it when someone told me about it initially until I gave him money to buy it just to confirm.

Likewise, the Nigeria milled Ebony rice, Stallione rice and others are taking over the rice market in Enugu.

Smuggling is definitely a problem because of our mostly ineffective custom officials but as local capacity grows, smuggling will become increasingly less profitable and gradually disappear just like is happening with rice.

mejai: hmmn. everybody is talking about rice here and nobody is talking about the fish in d topic. local produced fish is not enough for d nation to consume and available ones r expensive. I perceive lack of fish in our food soonest.
u go to hospital , d doctors would encourage u to abandon meat and hug fish and fruits.... yet fish and fruits r damn expensive Dan d drugs we buy. d government should take it easy with der policies until our local producers r at par wit importers.

Rawani:


Nigeria has a huge rice sector capable of earning $9 billion, this cannot be achieved without the present restrictions on importations and i agree they should be maintained. Irrigation however is a big issue with rice production as the major problem rice millers in Abakaliki are facing is that they do not produce because there is no irrigation facility in the whole of Ebonyi State. Rice Mills like Stallion which you mentioned have to source their crop from collection centres in the far rice producing states in the northern part of the country, adding transportation costs and other logistics to the final cost. The 'Fadama' irrigation programmes established in the some northern states by past administrations contributed greatly to our overall rice production figures as they provide the crop for these mills and similar efforts should be made by the current administration to make similar efforts so we can be able to fully exploit our potential.

Biafrarep: Am I missing something here or what?? This title is misleading!! why do we bandie statistics in these country with reckless abandon, chaii diaris is Goduo. firstly, the article reported that there was an 80% reduction on fish and rice cargo entering Nigeria through the ports, without a comensurate scarcity in the system BUT THIS IS DUE TO DIVERTION OF NIGERIA BOUND CARGO TO COTONOU PORTS AND SUBSEQUENT SMUGGLING OF SAME GOODS(FISH & RICE) INTO NIGERIA AND NOT BECAUSE LOCAL PRODUCTION HAS REPLACED IMPORTS!! secondly, I have heard a lot about massive local production of rice in Nigeria but why is it so difficult to come by?? All I see every where is gold cap, mama Africa etc with the bold inscription "made in Thailand or produce of India" what is really going on, is it that we produce locally and brand it made in Thailand or what. where the hell is the Abakaliki rice, ofada rice or ebony rice I keep hearing of everyday??

pheesayor: nothing swims in polluted water which is what most of our waters represent

Sincere9gerian:
Yes

bastien: Chai, people no dey sleep ooh, I be tintk say browsing n downloading supposed fast for mid night,I see make I download porns for midnight for today packages, downloading speed na 5kbs......chai naija youths I troway hat

komodapson:

Did i hear u say p...n....gaddemit...u remind me of 1906 in oslo

macklef:
Hmmmm. So all this shawa, kote are imported?

iceberylin: Gej till 1000000000AC

Entchidodo: Nice development even though customs are becoming a national disgrace......waiting for car imports to drop too...

pheesayor: @ lastpage, God bless you. Putting the cart before the horse has been the problem of this administration from the days of subsidy removal

anonimi: @ lastpage,

The problem of inflated food costs is the fact that there are too many people who receive too much money for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Thus the classical definition of inflation applies to our country- too much money chasing after too few goods.
How much does a LGA Councillor receive guaranteed monthly
What of State Assembly legisLOOTER as well as his Abuja NASS counterpart who is a SINator and representaTHIEF who also collect mega-millions without producing any Bill to address the multiple legal loopholes in our constitution or bring issues concerning their constituents whom they REPRESENT to the attention of the executive i.e. governor/commissioner & president/minister The wage DISPARITY therefore discourages the underpaid civil servants & other real sector workers from doing a good job & producing goods + services as they are clearly demotivated

Meanwhile your proposal of gradual phase-in while it seems good in theory may not be ideal in our situation as you need to encourage private investors by putting in place reasonable, stable & long-term import tariff protection so they can decide to produce locally rather than opt for quick TRADING returns from importation. That was what our really CLUELESS military DICTATORS did that brought us to this rotten stage of cheap & cheerful but deadly import-everything which the Jonathan/Sambo administration is slowly but steadily correcting.

Lastly, anyone who cannot fast/sacrifice meaningfully for a season will only remain perpetual slaves to those who can. May that not be our portion!!!
When you stayed in school for education you were making a sacrifice of your time & efforts in addition to that of your parents who paid the fees. You could have chosen to start "enjoying life" much earlier as maybe others did and are way below you now, normally.

Biafrarep: Am I missing something here or what?? This title is misleading!! why do we bandie statistics in these country with reckless abandon, chaii diaris is Goduo. firstly, the article reported that there was an 80% reduction on fish and rice cargo entering Nigeria through the ports, without a comensurate scarcity in the system BUT THIS IS DUE TO DIVERTION OF NIGERIA BOUND CARGO TO COTONOU PORTS AND SUBSEQUENT SMUGGLING OF SAME GOODS(FISH & RICE) INTO NIGERIA AND NOT BECAUSE LOCAL PRODUCTION HAS REPLACED IMPORTS!! secondly, I have heard a lot about massive local production of rice in Nigeria but why is it so difficult to come by?? All I see every where is gold cap, mama Africa etc with the bold inscription "made in Thailand or produce of India" what is really going on, is it that we produce locally and brand it made in Thailand or what. where the hell is the Abakaliki rice, ofada rice or ebony rice I keep hearing of everyday??

lastpage: @Pheesayor,

I got mail.

Sir, l was referring to the fact that l do enjoy reading your posts but of recent, l have not come across posts from you.... as much as l use to do before now.
Could be that l am not reading areas you post on, in recent times or probably you've been busy in other areas of life and hence not as active as you used to be but there is not need for me to start second guessing you.

Just Nostalgia on my part.

Lastpage!