More than 90 per cent of rice brought into Nigeria through the land borders is expired, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NSC), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) has disclosed.
The Customs boss made this known in Lagos during a discussion with president of the Beninoise Rice Millers’ Association, Alhaja Karamatou Ibironke.
Alhaja Ibironke had asked Ali to review the ban on importation of rice into the country.
But the Customs boss maintained that the Federal Government would not review laws banning importation of rice into the country through its numerous borders.
He explained that the government did not out rightly placed a ban on importation of rice, but only outlawed its importation through the land borders “because at the borders, we do not have equipment to check if it has expired or not.”
He said, “But at the seaports, we have all the equipment needed to carry out these checks.”
Ali said the government would continue to put the welfare and health of Nigerians in the forefront and not put citizens at risk.
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