Chief Audu Ogbeh |
Ogbeh also said the
federal government has achieved this feat despite the fact that some
elements in the polity are bent on sabotaging the efforts at drastically
reducing importation.
The minister
disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the second day of the Nigerian
Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture
(NACCIMA) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing system for
Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) Agribusiness and Policy Linkage
Conference, that hopes to see the implementation of the Agriculture
component of the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP).
He decried heavy dependence on foreign products by the country irrespective of the dangers they pose.
"This country by
and large have been taken hostage, some persons have refused to believe
it but why are there no jobs, why so much poverty, nobody want to buy
local thing because the importers have connections. They have ships,
they have banking facilities and they persuade opinion makers that it is
better and cheaper to import.
"We pass through so
much struggle to have a foothold in our own market including rice and
people think there is nothing wrong. They will tell you they prefer
foreign rice even though what we produce is better and safer for them.
The rice from Thailand has many challenges which they don't care to
know, because if you grow rice for too long in a mashed land, there will
be high content of acid in it. There's too much dependency on foreign
goods just because it is foreign," he said.
However, he
disclosed that despite the challenges, the country has made a lot of
success in terms of eradicating rice importation and this is a plus to
the country's economy.
"One example of
success is in rice. As at September, 2015, this country was importing
644,131 tons of rice. Exactly two years later, that is September 2017,
rice importation drops to 20, 000 tons; that's a 95 per cent drop.
"There are 12.2 million people growing rice in the country, producing paddy for the rice mills.
"In Kano alone, we
have 1,421 rice mills. We have large fields in Anambra, Ebonyi,
Nasarawa, Jigawa, kebbi and more are coming up, "he said.
Ogbeh also
enumerated the challenges currently faced in agribusiness exporting to
include funding which is access to credit, high interest rate
agricultural mechanization, packaging, and quality. Other include seed
development, research development and marketing. He called for more
private partnership as according to him, 'government is only steering
the wheel'.
The Managing
Director of NIRSAL, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed
said as events are unfolding, the government is laying down policy to
ensure that the private sector succeed in Agribusiness.
"What you see today
represent what the government is looking at, how the private sector can
lead and how the policies affect that leadership. The good thing about
investment is that ones you can be able to proof a risk return profile
and you can de-risk it, then investment will.
"What you observed
today is the mandate of NIRSAL as handed to us by the CBN. How do you
get actors from the value chain from primary production all the way
through processes, retailing, and domestic markets to export?
Mrs Alaba Lawson, President, NACCIMA said all hands must be on deck to achieve success and called on all to come on board.
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