The Federal Government has raised the alarm over the increase in smuggling of foreign rice through land borders into the country.
It expressed concern that the activities of smugglers were capable of rubbishing the moderate improvement in local rice production.
The government, therefore, vowed to continue to track vessels and companies that bring in rice into the country through the Benin Republic, with a view to sanctioning them.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Mohammad Abubakar and Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractice Chairman Dahiru Ado made these known at a meeting of the Steering Committee of the National Taskforce on the Illegal Importation of Rice Through Land Borders.
At the meeting in Abuja, the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), said that the service “cannot fight alone in the operation of the border patrol.”
In a statement by the Agriculture ministry’s Senior Information Officer, Mabel Mbosire, the minister explained that the meeting was convened to “strategise and come up with concrete measures to enable the committee to carry out its duties effectively.”
“The ministry is very concerned about the increase in smuggling,” Abubakar said, stressing that the huge improvement in the rice sub-sector needed to be sustained for the country’s economic growth.
He added: “ The resumed smuggling of foreign rice, especially through the land borders, is constituting a serious threat to these achievements.
“Therefore, if the smuggling is left unchecked it will jeopardise all government efforts to enhance the domestic rice industry and make them ineffective.
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“The Federal Government and the private sector have invested a lot of resources in rice production and processing over the years, because of the government’s commitment to the development of the sub-sector through its various interventions.
“The ministry has been supporting farmers, especially smallholders and rice processors, with quality seeds of improved varieties, production and processing machinery, and equipment.
“Also, the provision of modern rice mills of various capacities, parboilers, dryers, colour sorters, in order to boost rice production and improve the quality and competitiveness of domestic rice.
“The Nigerian rice industry has recorded significant progress in terms of investments due to an increase in the quality and quantity of the milled rice and it has, in turn, increased the competitiveness, consumer preference, and patronage of our milled rice.
“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 generation, and import substitution.”
Customs boss said other security agencies such as the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps needed to join the service to beef up the joint operations of the task force.
The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractice commended the Agriculture ministry, Customs Service, and other partners in tackling illegal rice importation.