By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, has disclosed that the integrated mills in the country currently produce about 150,000 bags of rice daily and about 35 million bags per annum.
Mr Mohammed made this disclosure on Monday while addressing newsmen during a press conference to roll out the achievements of the present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister said the giant strides of this government, which commenced its second term of four years on May 29, 2019, were already being felt in the agricultural sector, stressing that “today, Nigeria is closer to attaining self-sufficiency in rice production than at any time in the country’s history.”
He mainly attributed this to “the border drill (or closure) that has drastically reduced rice smuggling into the country and catalysed rice production by our farmers across the country.”
According to him, “We recently visited some of Nigeria’s 34 integrated rice mills as well as rice clusters in Kano. The rice mills are either operating at full capacity or have doubled their production.”
Mr Mohammed noted that, “Before the drill, there were 12.2 million rice farmers in Nigeria, but now six million people, mostly youths, are venturing into rice production.”
“Before the drill, farmers were cultivating rice twice a year, now that has increased to three times a year, and some rice farmers are now venturing beyond rice cultivation to milling, packaging and marketing,” he added.
The Minister said the closure of the country’s land borders “has curbed the smuggling of rice and other prohibited items into the country, led to significant seizures with estimated monetary value of over N3.5 billion, reduced local fuel consumption by 30 percent and reduced the importation of arms, munitions and drugs.”
He said since the borders were closed, “terrorists and other criminals are finding it hard to procure arms and ammunition while criminal elements no longer make their way into the country through the land borders. This has resulted in reduced cases of insecurity, whether its kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery or other violent crimes.”
According to him, “Smuggling of petroleum products out of Nigeria has been drastically curtailed,” noting that “the Nigeria Customs Service was recording about N4.5 billion daily. Since the drill started, the figure has increased to between N5 billion and N8 billion daily.”
He stated that, “The exercise has provided a unique platform for the various participating agencies to operate jointly, thereby strengthening inter-agency collaboration and reducing animosity.”
“It is also necessary to place on record that this is the first exercise in recent times, that military, paramilitary as well as intelligence and security agencies have come together to conduct such an exercise which is akin to a National Security exercise,” he declared.
