The federal government is planning to grant a 150-day dutyfree window for the importation of rice, wheat, maize and other food commodities.
Details of the development were leaked on social media yesterday, ahead of a planned press conference by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari.
Read Also: Prioritise food security, stomach infrastructure, Obasanjo tells gov’t
Though the press conference did not hold, Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, told the Peoples Gazette that something like that was in the works.
He said: “The policy was mistakenly circulated. We are still deliberating internationally from the agric ministry to other agencies on how best to proceed with the policy,” he said.
Onanuga, who apologised for the error, said the government was not oblivious to its potential impact on longsuffering Nigerians.
Nigeria’s current food inflation rate stood alarmingly high at 40. 66 per cent in May, 2024, as revealed by recent data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This has made it difficult for millions of Nigerians to afford three meals in a day amid poor value of the naira, occasioned by low income.
What the leaked memo said
Daily Trust reports that the leaked document from the minister of agriculture said that the planned measures would be carried out over the next five months.
It said 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities, which include suspension of duties, tariffs and taxes for the importation of certain food commodities through land and sea borders would be granted.
“In addition to the importation by private sector, the federal government will import 250,000MT of wheat and 250,000MT of Maize,” the document showed. Since the beginning of the year, Nigeria had witnessed rising cost of food as one metric ton of maize reached between N850,000 and N1 million.
Beans also hit record high as one ton currently sells above N2 million, while rice and wheat sell above N800, 000 per metric ton, depending on the location.
The proposed imported food commodities, according to the federal government, will be distributed to small-scale processors and millers nationwide in a semi-processed stage.
The document said that the federal government was also setting up structure that will institute commodity price mechanism across the country. “It would engage relevant stakeholders to set a Guaranteed Minimum Price (GMP) and mop up surplus assorted food commodities to restock the National Strategic Food Reserve,” it said.
