By Adedapo Adesanya
Four companies have been granted emergency approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to import a total of 262,000 tons of maize into the country over a period of three months from August through October.
The companies that were given the waiver to get Dollars at discounted rates are Wacot Limited, Chi farms Limited, Crown Flour Mills Limited and Premier Feeds Company Limited.
This was disclosed in a memo with reference number: NCS/T&T/I&E/021/S.93/VOL on Thursday evening signed by the Deputy Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service for Tariff and Trade, Mr T.M. Isa.
This means that despite the ban placed on the importation of maize, the apex bank will allow these companies to bring in the commodities into the country.
“In line with government policy on food security, sufficiency and striking a balance between food imports and local production capacities to meet the anticipated shortfall, the Central Bank of Nigeria has granted approval for the underlisted companies to import maize in the quantities stated below.
“Wacot and Chi Farms Limited are to import maize of 60,000 tons each, while Crown Flour Mills and Premier Feed Mills Company Limited will be importing maize of 22,000 and 120,000 tons respectively, within the three months period,” a part of the memo said.
It stated further that, “Note, approval is strictly for the four companies listed above and stemmed to the months of August, September and October only.”
“Given the clarification, all CACs are directed to note the companies, approved quantity, duration and jerque accordingly.
“Please be guided,” it concluded.
In July, the CBN announced the ban of maize importation in an effort to boost local production, but analysis shows that there is a shortfall of local production to meet demand. Nigeria produces about 10.5 million tons annually with an estimated need of 15 million tons and as a result, a shortfall in supply has led to an increase in the price of the commodity.
Earlier yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari made it known that he has approved the release of 30,000 tons of maize from the national reserves to animal feed producers to deal with the high cost of poultry production after the ban on maize imports.
“We are very mindful of the challenge of high food prices, at a time when the economy is already in a slowdown caused by the global coronavirus situation, and are doing everything in our power to bring down the prices of food items across the country,” Mr Buhari said.
