• EFCC arrests 21 truckloads of food leaving for Chad, Cameroon
• We seized 120 trucks of smuggled grains in two weeks, says Customs CG
• Seme Customs to auction 400 sacks of beans
• Agric Minister: Smuggling responsible for food scarcity in Nigeria
• Hardship: Tinubu insists Nigeria’s economy not in distress
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Federal Government to address food insecurity as an immediate priority. The IMF said this in its End-of-Mission statement issued after the completion of the IMF Staff 2024 Article IV Mission to Nigeria in Abuja yesterday.
The end-of-mission statement includes statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The statement said the new administration inherited a difficult economic situation marked by low growth, low revenue collection, accelerating inflation, and external imbalances built up over the years.
“Addressing food insecurity is the immediate priority. The recent approval of a well-targeted and effective social protection system is an important step towards addressing food insecurity in Nigeria, and its implementation will be crucial.”
The IMF team, led by Axel Schimmelpfennig, IMF mission chief for Nigeria, visited Lagos and Abuja from February 12 to 23 to hold discussions for the 2024 Article IV Consultations with Nigeria.
Amid the worsening food insecurity, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it has arrested 21 trucks loaded with food and non-food items heading towards N’djamena, Chad Republic, Central African Republic and Cameroon.
According to the commission’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, the trucks were intercepted in a sting operation at major exit routes along Kalabiri/Gamboru Ngala and Bama roads, Borno State by operatives of the Maiduguri Zonal Command yesterday.
Oyewale said the food items were cleverly concealed in the trucks that would have gone undetected, but for the eagle-eyed vigilance of the EFCC operatives, adding that the arrest is expected to stem the tide of food insecurity occasioned by unscrupulous antics of smugglers across the country.
“Suspects arrested with the trucks are being profiled and would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded,” Oyewale added. This is just as the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed yesterday that the service has arrested about 120 trucks smuggling food items from Nigeria to neighbouring countries.
Speaking at the sectoral debate organised by the House of Representatives, the Customs boss said the president has given a directive that the arrested trucks be diverted to the local markets in the areas where they were arrested in order to force down the price of grains and other food items.
He, however, decried the attitude of border communities who have engaged security agents in a bid to smuggle grains out of the country, adding that the decision to halt the smuggling of food items was to fight hunger and not encourage those who want to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.
He said Customs was playing its part in ensuring that the problem of food security is addressed, adding that currently, most agricultural inputs attract zero duty and zero VAT.
The Seme border command of the NCS said it intercepted 400 bags of beans worth N61.45 million on the verge of being illegally exported to Benin Republic. Speaking to journalists at the Seme-Krake Joint Border Post, the Customs Area Controller, Seme border, Compt. Timi Bomodi, disclosed that the intercepted beans would be auctioned to the public as soon as the headquarters of the service gives the necessary approval. Bomodi stated that the Customs Service Act 2023 does not allow Nigerians from exporting grains out of the country.
“We need to ensure that what is being produced locally stays within the country before we export and the new Customs Act says grains can’t be moved out of the country and when it’s done, there is a procedure. When that is not done, any attempt to do it illegally will be met with the full wrath of the law,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has said that food scarcity came too early this year, noting that “it often rears its head in May/June but it came quite early this time.”
This is just as he blamed the food scarcity being experienced across the country on smuggling, flooding, the naira redesign policy and the COVID-19 pandemic which ravaged the world in 2020/2021.
The minister, who stated this at the Sectoral Debate series on Tuesday, noted that the naira redesign policy implemented by the government of Muhammadu Buhari denied small-scale farmers access to cash to pay for their harvest towards the end of 2022 as well as pay for cultivation during the commencement of the wet season last year. He also fingered insecurity in the country, culminating in low cultivation of land as a factor, as many farmers were displaced from their rural habitation.
To address the challenges faced by farmers nationwide, Kyari assured Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu has mandated the Ministry to make grains available both for cultivation and consumption.
“We have engaged the World Food Programme to help stabilize prices. We also asked them to assist our farmers to produce more food. But we want our farmers to take advantage of irrigation facilities to do all-season farming and the President has been very supportive of this,” he said.
The agriculture minister further noted that Nigeria requires 72,000 tractors to achieve food security, adding that the country only has fewer than 5,000 tractors that are working.
Kyari highlighted the lack of mechanisation in agricultural practice as a significant impediment to better output as farmers still depend on hoes and cutlasses.He informed the lawmakers that the Federal Government is on the verge of procuring tractors from foreign companies.
“Mechanisation is a substantial setback for us in this country. Today, I am not too sure if we have 5,000 tractors fully working in Nigeria. We need over 72,000 with what we have in terms of arable landscape.
“We signed an MoU last year in November with John Deere, a prominent American agricultural equipment company. The MoU aims for John Deere to bring in 2,000 tractors a year for the next five years, making it 10,000. As I speak, they are in Lagos today and will be arriving in Abuja this evening,” he said.
HOWEVER, President Tinubu has challenged the notion that the Nigerian economy is in distress, highlighting the progress his administration has made, so far, and the opportunities for growth and development in the country.
The President spoke in an address at the Leadership Conference and Awards, 2023, in Abuja on Tuesday. Represented by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, the President shared key initiatives and investment efforts by the administration to support Nigerian businesses, students, and vulnerable households, as well as to enhance food security and attract foreign direct investment.
He said: “I should start by respectfully challenging that notion that the Nigerian economy is in distress. Distress suggests helplessness, being at the mercy of something we have no control over. But that is not the case here.
“We are in challenging times, no doubt, but these times have also been marked by unprecedented opportunities, to reset course and to build a new and sustainable economy, away from the rent-seeking and the waste that was once the order of the day.”
Tinubu disclosed that intervention funds totaling N200 billion have been set aside to support Nigerian businesses; in addition to a new Federal Students’ Loan program and the Presidential Initiative on CNG. The N200 Billion Naira, according to the President, will be disbursed through three new special intervention funds established to support Nigerian businesses.
On the Presidential Initiative on CNG, the President noted the “imminent rollout of these CNG-powered buses which will bring down the cost of transportation by as much as 50 percent.”
The President also highlighted the substantial increase in revenues accruing to the three tiers of Government since the removal of the petrol subsidy. “This means more funds are available to directly impact the lives of Nigerians through investments in critical infrastructure, social security, and other areas,” he said.
