Stakeholders converged on Abuja, yesterday to review the federal government's policy on rice with a verdict that although the 110 per cent tariff on rice import had taken a toll on the nation's revenue profile, the country was the better for it since local production of the commodity has risen astronomically and contributed immensely in employment generation.
Chairman, Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractices, Alhaji Dahiru Ado-Kurawa, who briefed journalists, after a meeting of the stakeholders, said government's policy on rice had greatly deepened local production of the commodity, which was geared towards attaining self-sufficiency in the product.
According to him, with local milling capacity rising by about 200 per cent, there had been an increase in production of about four million tonnes of local rice, thereby driving the production of paddy rice to an all-time high.
Ado-Kurawa lamented that there had been loss of revenue due to smuggling through the nation's land borders, adding that efforts were being made to stem the tide.
He also stated that whatever was being lost through declining import revenue arising from the rice policy was being recovered through high local production of the commodity with the attendant huge employment generation.
The chairman said the stakeholders' meeting was aimed at reviewing the rice policy and sift out the grey areas where improvements could be made with a view to ensuring that the government's quest to halt rice import was achieved.
On allegations that the smuggling of rice into the country was perpetrated through the free trade zones (FTZs), the Presidential Task Force Chairman on Trade Malpractices said while he had no facts to confirm or debunk the allegations, if it was true, tackling that would be easy since the FTZs are government channels.
President, Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria, Mr. Tunji Oweya, in an interview with journalists, commended the federal government for looking into the challenges facing the rice sub-sector.
He listed the challenges as smuggling of foreign rice brands through the Benin Republic border as well as incentives to rice farmers and processors.
He said Nigeria's neighbours were exploiting some loopholes arising from the rice policy to flood the country with parboiled imported rice brands, adding that the country loses over N20 billion to the smuggling of rice through the Seme border alone. This, he lamented, was of great revenue loss to the country, calling for an urgent and more effective measures to stem the tide.