Local Rice Producers Hail Customs’ Resolve To Ban Smuggling

Local growers of rice have hailed the decision at the weekend of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to ban the entry of foreign rice through the country’s land boarders.

In a decision aimed at ending the massive smuggling of rice which has cost the country no less than N27 billion since January this year and is threatening to throw local rice production into jeopardy, the Customs said on Friday that the importation of rice through land boarders  had been stopped forthwith.

Spokesman of the NCS, Wale Adeniyi who announced the decision in Abuja that “all imported rice must come through the sea ports with duty paid on them according to the law.”

 Acknowledging this decision as proper and timely in a statement on Sunday, the “Patriotic Rice Association, (PRAN) “which raised an alarm, alleging, among others that smugglers had overwhelmed the customs said that nothing short of the closure of the boarders against smugglers would save the budding rice industry in the country.

 PRAN represented by its leaders, Alhaji Habibu Maishinkafa and Martins Okereke said that it is the higher tariff and consequent high market prices that have enthused smugglers to push large volumes of rice into Nigeria with zero duty, thereby unsettling FG’s efforts to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production by 2015.

 They decried the situation in which “large-scale investments made into the farming and milling industries by private businesses are also in jeopardy, following Customs’ inability to protect the industry from the vagaries of smugglers.”
PRAN quoted reports that suggest that more than 400,000 metric tonnes of rice from various origins are estimated to enter the country illegally, dealing a major financial blow to legitimate importers and rice millers.” Needless to add, these illegal imports result in substantial loss of revenue for the Government, estimated to be in the range of N 27billion by industry observers,” they asserted.
In his statement on Friday, Mr. Adeniyi, announced that the NCS has impounded 35,194 bags of rice estimated to cost about N217 million in the last two months.
PRAN last week alleged that several vessels with cargoes totaling to more than 220,000 Metric Tonnes from Indian and Thai origins have flooded the ports of Benin and Cameroun in order to eventually find their way to Nigeria through the borders.
Vessels from India involving 90,000 metric tonnes to Benin include MV Lord Curzon, MV Santa Barbara, MV Zeynupkiran, MV Emenates and MV Captain.
“Vessels from Thailand with cargoes of more than 130,000 metric tonnes are shipped to Benin on vessels MV White Fin, MV Makra, MV Blanco Zealand and others. Several container loads totaling over 150,000 tonnes since the start of 2013 have also started penetrating through the borders through Benin, Niger Republic, borders with Northern Nigeria and in the east with Yaounde. More than 8 million bags of rice have flooded all markets including Alaba, Daleko, Ideo, Singer and other prominent nationwide markets”, the statement added.
They also noted that smugglers have reportedly used sophisticated weapons attacking and killing customs staff, inflicting fears in the ranks across the borders.
PRAN said the recent decision banning smuggled rice by the NCS should be supported by the customs rank-and-file and by the entire citizens because it is “a patriotic measure.”