Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has said that there is no going back on the recent policy shutting out 41 imported items from having access to foreign exchange.
Emefiele also vowed to recover unpaid import duties on rice and create jobs for unemployed Nigerians.
The CBN governor, who spoke while hosting a stakeholders’ meeting with officials of paddy rice producing states and rice value chain investors said “Since the announcement of the new policy, a few have wondered why rice was included in the list while many commentators have also passionately intoned on why the country continues to import rice, when our vast quantities of paddy rice of comparable quality produced by our hardworking farmers across the rice belts of the country are being wasted or simply ignored.
“The reason for the inclusion of rice on the list is not far-fetched. Figures available with the CBN show that from the period January 2012 to May 2015, the country had spent over US$2.41 billion on the importation of this commodity.
“Unfortunately, this trend has resulted in huge unsold stock of paddy rice cultivated by our farmers and low operating capacities of the many integrated rice mills in Nigeria.”
He emphasised that the trend of importing everything must not be allowed to continue, he said “This trend must not be allowed to continue. Indeed, with the new policy measure in place, this forum has been called to explore fresh ideas, thinking out of the box and desirably coming up with a new ‘National Rice Intervention Framework’ that all stakeholders can own, identify and support religiously.
“In the past few weeks, we have had several deliberations on how to resuscitate our domestic industries and improve employment generation in the country using the rice sub-sector as a key launch pad.
“Their commitment to this cause deeply signifies the growing partnership with the CBN in the diversification of the economy from oil.”