FG meets Customs as 566,000MT of India, Thailand rice arrive Benin Republic

Rice producers and millers have raised the alarm that about 566,000 metric tonnes of foreign rice may be smuggled into Nigeria through the country’s porous land borders at the detriment of locally produced rice.

This came as Federal Government confirmed on Sunday that there was increase in the smuggling of rice into Nigeria.

As such, the government said it had convened a meeting involving the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies to re-strategize on how to address the ugly trend.

The Director-General, Rice Producers Association of Nigeria, Andy Ekwelem said that a document containing the movement of rice from Thailand and India to Benin Republic, which was obtained by RIPAN, showed that over 566,000MT of the commodity had been finding its way into the neighbouring country.

He explained that almost all the bags of rice shipped into Benin Republic were smuggled into Nigeria because the Nigerian population and market for rice was huge.

Ekwelem said, “If you look at this document (obtained by RIPAN), we have well over 184,989 metric tonnes of rice for Benin Republic from Thailand. Four vessels have already offloaded in Benin Republic and one of them was offloaded since August. These are the products you are seeing in the Nigerian market”.

“Rice is one of the key products in the Federal Government’s food security programme, so they had restricted the approval of Form-M for anybody who is importing rice into the country.

“So, what these people do is that they take the rice to Benin Republic and then, they send it through the porous (Nigerian) borders. This is what has been happening for ages.

Also, the Chairman, Rice Millers Association of Nigeria, Peter Dama said indigenous rice dealers had complained severally to the government and the NCS over the influx of smuggled rice.

He said, “We have complained and drawn their attention to the fact that the smuggled rice is coming through our borders and that they should take action.

“They had made promises but up till now, we have not seen anything done adequately to stop the smuggling of rice into Nigeria. They bring the rice to our neighbouring countries and smuggle it into our country. It is very unfortunate and is affecting our efforts.

To address this, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mahmood Abubakar, on Sunday said the steering committee of the National Taskforce of the Illegal Importation of Rice through the Land Borders met at the agric ministry on the matter.

He confirmed that rice smuggling had been on the rise and must be stopped, as the ban on rice importation had brought about a significant rise in local rice production.

He noted that domestic production of rice was being threatened by the resumed illegal inflow of the foreign commodity.

“Therefore, if smuggling is left unchecked, it will jeopardize all government efforts to enhance the domestic rice industry and make them ineffective”.

He said there had been so much investment in the domestic production of rice and that government had given out quality seeds of improved varieties, production and processing machineries/equipment including the provision of modern rice mills of various capacities, per boiler, dryer, colour sorters among others.

There is no better time than now to maintain the rice production momentum in order to achieve self sufficiency for food and nutrition security, job creation, wealth generator and import substitution.

On his part, the Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali, said that the meeting had presented an avenue to the committee to deliberate and discuss on curbing insecurity and smuggling of rice into the country.

He said, “The Nigerian Customs Service cannot fight alone in the operation of the border patrol but needs other security agencies such as the Nigerian Security and Defence Corps to beef up the joint operation of the taskforce”.

The Chairman, Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractice, Dahiru Ado said his committee would continue to track vessels that bring in rice into the country through the Republic of Benin and that the companies involved would be apprehended.

The meeting also had representatives from the Federal Ministry of Finance, NSCDC, among others.