By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, has disclosed that the Federal Government’s move to support local production of rice has taken its toll on Asian rice mills.
According to him, “Five of such mills in Thailand servicing Nigeria have stopped production due to the withdrawal of our patronage…This is because Nigeria, which is one of the world’s largest importers of rice no longer, buys rice from them.”
Mr Shehu noted that in 2015, Nigeria only imported 58,000 tons of rice from Thailand in contrast to 1.2 million tons in 2014.
He pointed out that efforts by the government to get Nigeria out of the present economic challenges were already yielding positive results, especially in agriculture.
The Presidential spokesman further said an increase in the volume of rice production and processing was already saving a lot of foreign exchange.
According to him, government is watching with keen interest the growing investment in rice milling by the private sector, adding that government would continue to encourage the Ministry of Agriculture on such efforts through BUA Industries in Jigawa and Dangote in Kano.
Mr Shehu stressed that such encouragement would also be extended to OLAM and WACOTT in Nasarawa and Kebbi as well as a consortium of businessmen led by a former Governor in Anambra.
He said the price of a bag of fertilizer had been reduced from over N9,000 per bag to N5,500, pointing out that Nigeria has about 32 fertilizer blending plants that have remained idle for many years, but about half of that number was now in production with many of them running three shifts a day.”
Adedapo Adesanya