By Nduka Chiejina, Abuja and Collins Nweze, Lagos
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele has urged rice millers to embrace the bank’s backward integration initiative aimed at conserving foreign exchange reserves, revamping local production capacity and creating employment.
Speaking during the inauguration of the Garewa Rice Mill in Kano, Kano State, yesterday, Emefiele stressed the need for rice millers to be involved in paddy production to guarantee the product’s sustainable supply to their mills and complement the supply from the smallholder farmers through the apex bank’s partnership with the Rice Farmers Association (RIFAN) and prime anchors.
He noted that the number of rice mills had grown from less than 10, with a combined capacity of less than 350,000 metric tons, prior to the launch of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) in 2015, to over 60 integrated rice mills, with a combined capacity of about three million metric tons as at last month, with about 10 more mills scheduled to be inaugurated later this year.
The governor said the increasing number of rice mills, which was complemented by hundreds of small-scale mills, attested to the conducive environment the CBN had been able to create in the rice value chain through its initiatives and stakeholders’ collaboration.
Stressing the need to match the increasing milling capacity of rice nationwide with increased paddy production,Emefiele charged millers to take advantage of the ABP and the Private-Sector Led Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (P-AADS) of the bank, which provide long-term financing option to millers to finance commercial farms, land development, irrigation facilities and other agricultural infrastructure that will enhance their respective production plans.
Noting that the quality of milled rice could match most foreign brands, he expressed gladness that the bank’s collaboration with the fiscal authorities had helped to curtail the proliferation of the markets for sub-standard imported rice varieties.
He, therefore, enjoined Nigerians to heed the call of President Muhammadu Buhari to “produce what we eat and eat what we produce,” by patronising rice brands milled in Nigeria.
Continuing, Mr. Emefiele said the resuscitated Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) will facilitate grading, sorting, quality assurance and storage infrastructure for key agricultural commodities and also enhance price discovery for smallholder farmers, adding that the exchange will provide aggregation hubs for millers to enhance paddy off-take and grow to providing futures for millers and farmers to lock in prices and operate under a controlled price regime.
In his remarks, the Kano Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, thanked the CBN Governor, for not only extending ABP facilities to Kano, but also assisting the State in the area of infrastructural development of facilities such as the Tiga and Chalawa hydro-electricity dam projects.
Also speaking at the event, the Governor of Jigawa State, Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, eulogized the CBN Governor for empowering youth and creating wealth in the country.
The promoter to the rice mill, Alhaji Isa Garewa commended the vision of the CBN Governor on initiating the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), which has turned out to be the saving grace of Nigeria, especially with the outbreak of the Corona virus (COVID-19).