Smugglers seem to have taken over the
Nigerian rice market, flooding the it with
sub-standard and expired rice across
the country, with reports of hundreds of
trailers crossing the porous borders
reaching a high in the recent weeks and
endangering the country’s plans to
achieve self-sufficiency in rice
production.
Industry sources and consumers urged
the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to
curb smuggling through intensified
efforts. They also asked for NAFDAC to
take urgent action by inspecting rice
stored at several clandestine storage
locations in the country.
THE REPORT checks indicate that given
the un-met demand of more than three
million tonnes annually and owing to
inadequate local production, Nigeria’s
mass consumption needs for rice are
currently restricted for legal imports
given high import tariff and lack of
cohesive policy.
Legal importers paying full tariff of 70
per cent will never be able to compete
with smugglers who enjoy a free ride
into the market, aided by negligible
tariffs in neighbouring Cameroon and
Republic of Benin, taking advantage of
porous borders.
Reports emerge that the huge influx has
been noticed in the market from last
Saturday, the worst affected being Lagos
and South West. Rice arrived in big
trailers with 1200-1500 numbers of
50kg bags from Cotonou. There is
substantial under declaration and non-
payment aspects in these shipments,
making is non-viable for legal importers
and local producers to compete with
these shipments.
The most concerning issue is that
substandard, cheap and sometimes
expired (poisonous) rice is filling up the
markets, and desperate consumers end
up buying them, risking their good
health. Industry sources lament that the
rice does not meet NAFDAC standards
of quality and that the organisation
should move forthwith to galvanise their
inspection activities at the borders,
warehouses, markets and other places
where such rice is stored for onward
sale to the customers.
The illegal routes are located in Lagos,
Ogun, Oyo,Kwara, Cross River, Rivers,
Taraba, Borno, Adamawa,Kastina,
Sokoto and Zamfara states.
The chairman of Seaport Terminal
Operators Association of Nigeria
(STOAN), Vicky Haastrup, puts the local
production capacity at 30 per cent. “It is
a fact that local production cannot
match local demand, which creates a
recipe for smuggling,” she said.
According to her, “our neighbouring
countries are profiting from the policy
by dropping their own tariffs on rice, and
because they are benefitting, they give
tacit support to these smugglers.”
To Haastrup and other stakeholders, the
nation’s chances of achieving the rice
self-sufficiency target by this year will
continue to getting slimmer unless
government stems cross-border
smuggling. The country is already in the
last quarter of the year and the anti-
smuggling campaign has not gathered
enough steam for the realisation of the
target.
The Chairman of PRAN, an association
of local growers and legal importers of
rice, Alhaji Habilu Maishinkafa, is livid.
He said a bleak future is steering
investors in the face because of the
upsurge in the activities of rice
smugglers.
He lamented that the rate of smuggling
of the commodity remains quite high,
with concomitant effects of loss of
investment, market share, job losses,
revenue and increase in youth
unemployment. The PRAN chair said
large scale investments in farming and
milling industries by private businesses
are being jeopardised by the free reign
of rice smugglers.
Explaining the process of rice
production, experts say the farmers
must plant rice and produce paddy
(raw) rice, sell the paddy rice to the
processors, who turn the rice into
finished products.
They lamented that the processors no
longer buy paddy from the farmers in
sufficient quantities because the price is
not attractive for business.
Noting, for instance, that local rice
farms and milling plants have been
unable to impact on host communities
as they are supposed to following the
ugly development,
Maishinkafa expressed fears that the
rice policy is gradually being eroded in
view of the unrestrained activities of
economic saboteurs, illegal importers
and smugglers. He appealed to the
Federal Government to tighten the
porous borders.