As Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) makes unrelenting efforts to curtail smuggling, no fewer than 2.85 million tonnes (2.85 billion bags) of multiple brands of foreign rice valued at N665 billion ($1.44 billion) are expected to be routed through Benin- Nigeria borders by rice cartels before the end of the year. It was gathered that importers in Nigeria and Republic of Benin had booked the grain to be smuggled into the country from Thailand and India, Vietnam and other countries. A tonne of parboiled rice is $506 in Thailand market as at Thursday last week.

Findings revealed also that large quantities of the grain had flooded Nigerian markets despite Customs efforts in the first three months of the year. The Federal Government had in August 2019 directed the closure of all land borders to stop the importation of rice. However, a trade portal, Index Mundi revealed that Nigeria importers have booked for 2.3 million tonnes, while their counterparts in Benin will ship 550,000 tonnes for Nigerian markets, leading to a total 2.85million tonnes (2.85 billion bags). In the South West alone, Customs has seized over 31,075 bags of foreign rice from smugglers in the borders and warehouses as government’s still in place to encourage local production.

In March, Ogun 1 Area Command of the service said it impounded 12,610 bags of smuggled rice (50kg and 25kg) from smugglers, noting that 6, 743 bags of rice, each weighing 50kg were intercepted between January and February 2023. Also, the service’s Federal Operation Unit (FOU), Zone A seized 5,328 x 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice in March, while 5,481 units of 50kg bags of the grain were impounded in January. This is after it seized 93,102 X 50kg (156 trailer loads of rice) last year from smugglers in South west. Also, both Kaduna and Kebbi commands said that they have seized 189bags and 724 bags of rice respectively.

Worried by the influx of the grain from Thailand and India, Nigerian rice dealers and farmers said that the return of the foreign rice into the country’s markets had affected local production while lamenting the porous borders. On December 16, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the reopening of four borders: Seme in Lagos, Illela in Sokoto, Maigatari in Jigawa, and Mfum in Cross River. In April 2022, Buhari, through the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), approved the reopening of four more: Idiroko in Ogun, Jibiya in Katsina, Kamba in Kebbi and Ikom in Cross River. It would be recalled that early in the year, the Federal Government said it was targeting 84,000 extension agents and 12 million farmers on Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) and Sustainable Rice Production (SRP) to sustain 7.45million tonnes (7.5billion bags of 50 kilogrammes) of rice in 2023. However, the country’s local production went down in 2022 because of flood, leading to a shortfall of 2.2million tonnes to meet the local consumption, production was mere 5.3million tonnes. According to Index Mundi, the country is the 10th largest consumer of the grain after China with 155 million tonnes; India, 109.25 million tonnes; Bangladesh, 36.8 million tonnes; Indonesia, 35million tonnes, Viet Nam, 21.5million tonnes; Philippines, 15.6million tonnes; Thailand, 12.9million tonnes; Myanmar , 10.3million tonnes; Japan, 8.2million tonnes and Nigeria 7.45million tonnes. Others are Brazil, 7.25million tonnes; Nepal, 4.72million tonnes; United States, 4.48million tonnes; Cambodia , 4.2million tonnes; Côte D’ivoire, 2.6million tonnes; United Republic of Tanzania, 2.52million tonnes; Mali, 2.35million tonnes and Senegal, 2.1million tonnes. However, in the recently launched National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS II) document by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Shehuri , it was revealed that the Federal Government was planning to increase the rice area under irrigation from less than 1 million hectares to 2.7 million hectares in order to boost more local production. Before now, the Central Bank of Nigeria had saved $12.77billion foreign exchange following the ban of the grain in the last seven years in order to encourage local production. Finding revealed that the country spent $1.83billion yearly on forex prior to the ban of the grain by the government. According to the Federal Government’s recent report, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Anchor Borrowers Programme had enable the country to save $5 million in forex daily from importing rice since it was banned. The minister noted that cultivable land in the country was estimated at 4.234 million hectares, made up of rain-fed uplands at 30 per cent, rainfed lowland at 52 per cent, irrigated lowlands at 17 per cent and mangrove at 1 per cent. (New Telegraph)