Rice import waiver: Senate Adhoc orders Ebony Agro to pay 228 million naira.

President Muhammadu Buhari

All effort of the Chairman of the Ebony Agro Limited Nigeria, the former minister of commerce and industry, Mr. Charles Ugwu under President late Yar’adua fell into deaf ears of the Senate Adhoc committee on waiver, concession and grants as Senator Adamu Aliero ordered that the company should pay N228million to government cover being a penalty for importing 10,000 metric tons higher its allotted allocation just as the same applied to other companies. 

The company chairman, Mr. Charles Ugwu who admitted the offence however passionately pleaded that the company be forgiven being the first indigenous company that responded to local production of milled rice to mitigate challenges of paddy off takers from farmers saying his company did not import finished rice but rather processed rice adding the payment can affect the production operation of the company for now.

All the members of the committee unanimous agreed that there is nothing the committee could do to favour any company that has not conformed to quality of waivers given as Senators Olugbenga Aishafa and Alasoadura said the rule cannot be bent for any company rather than doing the right things as demanded by the Federal government levy rules and laws.

In his chat with NTA, the Chairman, Adhoc Committee on waiver, concession and grant on food import, Sen. Adamu Aliero said that all effort would be made to ensure all necessary revenue of the Federal Government through the custom duty back to her cover stressed many of the waiver do not follow due process as there was no basis for food importation our farmers can produce.

Sen. Aliero pointed that companies who are producing what we cannot will still enjoy waiver benefits as long as there is status permit that guarantee them the bringing of goods that are duty bound.

He said that “but unfortunately it was discovered that the traffic were never consulted right from 2011 up till now. These waivers are just issued without recourse to due process and that is why there is a lot of abuses associated to it and we are hoping to come out with good recommendation that will stop abuses and allow due process to be followed in giving probity waivers. That is what we want to do. 

There are waives that are good. For example an industry that is coming to Nigeria for the first time to manufacture goods or services that is not available in the country. And normally they are entitled to bring in goods that are duty free and such thing is designed for the economy which is good for us as it is allowed. First, the goods are not what we can manufacture, and secondly, if they come and establish industry, they will provide employment for Nigerians and this is one of the incentives used by most of the developing countries and Nigeria should not be an exception. 

We are desirous that waiver should be issued but against the indiscriminately issue of waivers that are extended to consumable that could be produced locally. I give you example; there is no point in giving waiver to rice. We can produce rice locally. We have farmers, land and to be honestly with you, we can equally feed ourselves. By giving waiver, you are more or less discouraging the local farmers because our farmers cannot compete with farmers in India, Thailand in terms of facility you can ever think of like R&T Research Development unit are up to date”.

Both Messrs Stallion Group and Olam International which were both involved in rice importation running to the tune of N44billion naira as debt being for import duties on 457,000 metric tons of rice since last year May has also been ordered by the Senate Committee chairman to pay without delay saying “Nigeria will not fold hands and watch the huge debt swept under the carpet. 

There is no way government will ignore this kind of money. We have to ensure that this money is collected and deposited into the Federation Account”.

The companies’ allegation according to Sen. Aliero was that they imported rice into the country without paying waiver, off-loaded it into their warehouses and refused to pay the required duties when asked by the Customs authority adding that instead of payment Stallion group decided to take court action agains NCS. He accused the company of exceeding the import quota of 157,000 to 457,000. 

Defending the company, the Executive Director of Stallion Group, Harpreet Singh said that their mission in Nigeria was to ensure the country’s food sufficiency in rice production saying the nation’s borders were porous and that the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan had granted the approval based on rice fiscal policy on May 2014.

Cottage stakeholders urge FG to support BOI for grassroot development

Local Cassava Processor at Utugwang, Cross River

As the issue of marketing of agricultural produce is becoming more challenges, stakeholders have expressed the need for the Federal Government to deplore more funding support to the Bank of Industry (BOI) for the purpose of financing cottage processing zones creation which was a Partnership between the Federal Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (FMARD) and other stakeholders at cassava, rice, palm oil etc.

The stakeholders expressed that the financial empowerment of BOI to financing the cottage processing zones would enable more establishment of cottage crops processing factories that will complement the existing industries along different value chains. 

As the FMARD is passionate about checkmating post harvest loses of farmers and making sure an effective policy to ensure standard processed agricultural foods are made available for further processing for off takers, there is need for this effort to be complemented by fund availability for BOI so that the collaboration will not suffer as a result of lack of fund.

This summation according to stakeholders is very necessary to advise government in the implementation of 2016 policy in the agricultural sector as FG is determined to give more budget priority to agriculture which they argued that the implement process must be powered with efficient processing centres adding this was how wastages could be curbed at the farm gates and job creation at the grassroot of micro economics of the nation.

Food Farm News gathered that FMARD is already strategizing effective methods aimed towards achieving the success of this programmes in cassava, oil palm, rice and other crops in the value chains towards products quality/standard vigorously, market exploitation (local and international) for economic power creation in the country as government is urged to put more money in the Bank of Industry (BOI) for people to get more benefits, just as states should contribute their quota by reducing the loan rate.

The Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Mohammadu Buhari has signified that the 2016 budget for agriculture and mining will have highest priorities as against Defence ministry thereby showing his unrelented belief in backward integrated economy of using the non oil sector of agriculture to reposition the economy towards financial empowerment of Nigerians in shortest time.

Finding revealed that NGOs are been expected to participate towards reducing the loan component to strengthen the SMEs of the cottage owners as BOI  should be more proactive by facilitating effective disbursement and payment of cottage developers to ensure continuity of the project.

 A source told Food Farm News that the Cassava Cottage Processing and Marketing Association (CCPMA) is beneficiary group under the Public Private and Partnership (PPP) arrangement with the FMARD and BOI saying CCPMA is a Community Based Crops Processing Factories grouped nationally spread out to transform the industrial setting of our rural areas using Agro business as our weapon for excellent in food quality and processing.

The source added that we have the potential to be the largest employer of labor in the rural area of the country. We are geared towards facilitating the registration of our members’ factory premises with relevant agencies added that the The federal department of Agriculture had organized a workshop/Training where the CCPMA society concept is been agreed upon, and aimed at facilitation of good agricultural processing activities of investors towards production of improved value added products in order to meet local market demands as well as volume of exportation.

CCPMA is in collaboration with relevant agencies such as National Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC), Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), National Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS), for effective linkages and efficient service delivery to the nation and the world at large factory beneficiaries during which the formation of the CCPMA was agreed upon.

FG to enforce fertilizer quality control system

Mr. Akinbolawa Osho, Director Fertilizer FMARD, with others

The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has resolved to develop a regulatory framework for quality checks and enforcement to ensure that farmers access quality fertilizers. 

The Permanent Secretary, FMARD, Arc. Sonny Echono, represented by the Director, Farm Input Support Service Department of the ministry, Mr. Akinbolawa Osho, disclosed this at the launch of a soil project on the “Establishment and Implementation of fertilizer Quality Control System in Nigeria” fully supported by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) at the Ministry's Headquarter in Abuja. 

Arc. Echono stated that the legal and regulatory framework for fertilizer quality control would enable federal government inspectors to undertake periodic quality control at fertilizer production plants, ports of discharge and market outlets adding that fertilizer samples would be drawn by inspection officials for laboratory analysis. 

The PS said government has identified some violations in the sub-sector which include plant nutrient deficiencies, misbranding, adulteration, short weight of bags, bagging quality, operating without certificate of registration or with expired certificate of registration. He however condemned the activities of some unscrupulous players who have been ripping off farmers the benefit accruable from their investment in fertilizer. 

Arc. Echono stated that a Draft Fertiliser Bill the ministry sent to the National Assembly has passed the first reading and would ensure its passed into law soonest. He maintained Present Administration's drive in the Agricultural Sector of the economy which is geared towards employment generation, food security and poverty reduction. 

He however appreciated the support of Grow African Agriculture ( AGRA) towards the development of a regulatory framework for the establishment and implementation of fertilizer quality control system in Nigeria.

Earlier in her welcome address, the Deputy Director, quality Control, FMARD, who is also the project Manager, Mrs. Chinyere Akudinobi, stated that the project was aimed at developing and implementing a functional fertilizer regulatory system in the country which she said would address the problems of fertilizer quality in Nigeria. 

The goodwill message of AGRA, delivered by Mary Yaodze  expressed the confidence the organization reposed in the ministry and pledged its continued collaboration, which she said would improve production, quality of fertilizer and its control. 

The launch of the project had in attendance representatives of Development Partners from ECOWAS Commission, International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), and USAID (Nigeria).

FG may use dry season farming to mitigate food shortage-Cellulant boss.

Bolaji Akinboro

My name is Bolaji Akinboro, CEO, Cellulant Nigeria, and Chief of Party for the electronic wallet scheme. This is my understanding of where we are as today. The current government has promised to continue with any good policy for the development of agricultural sector. 

There has been an usual situation that happened in 2015 in which crude oil price prices suddenly collapsed thereby making government not to be able to meet in obligation. As a result many things could not be done like inputs for raining season. But my understanding of the strategy to mitigate this is by expanding this year dry season planting to more farmers.

 The plan is that there will be an expanded dry season planting that will be made to target as high as three million farmers and this will be used to recoup whatever things we may have lost in terms of the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) in 2015 raining planting season. And rice is a crop of our food consumption, if we have 2 million to 2.5 million farmers doing rice at the dry season, at the average of five tons per hectare as each of them will do 1-2 hectares. 

What this will translate is almost about 25 million tons of rice paddies and this will help a lot because right now Nigeria currency is every day getting devalued. So a large dry season planting will do us well to checkmate food imports and my understanding of President Muhammadu Buhari is that he is ready to any good policy for food security.

What is your take about some states that purchase fertilizer inputs without following GES process?

I know some states tried to go back to old system, but farmers themselves protested in some of the states which I will not like to mention. They are protesting against going back to the old system because of the way GES worked for them in getting seeds and fertilizer inputs at a subsidized rates. 

The GES is a partnership model between the FG, States government and farmers, and there is no state government that can singularly support farmers without the Federal Government through the GES which is a very transparent process of payment to who pays and who collects. When you look at the subvention the state governments are getting, it is not enough to support the majority of farmers in the state. 

So whether we like it or not the GES concept is there, and it is the best system in agricultural input distribution because it shares the concept well across everybody. And one thing that the FG wants to do is to improve upon the GES for next level of Nigeria Agricultural Payment Initiative (NARI). 

What Government is saying now is that we have experienced GES for three years, let us go back and do revalidation of all the farmers we have registered in the data base. But this time around, we will capture their bio metrics and each farmer will have a unique identity card he can use for GES production. And with this ID, the farmers can easily be clustered into cooperative in such a way that if a farmer wants to borrow, we can connect the farmers to banks as government is only supporting with two bags of fertilizer which may not meet the six bags required as the case maybe. But they can now get banks’ borrowing to complete the rest needed fertilizer bags.

The way I am seeing things from the body language of President Mohammudu Buhari, Nigerian farmers will continue to enjoy more of government’ support as the approval to NAPI will enhance the dry season production of 2015 and also solve problem of farmers not being able to borrow money from the banks. We are supposed to have started NAPI is about 12 states and we will be starting with dry season farming in Zamfara, Kano, Bauchi, etc. and those states that do large scale of agricultural produce in dry season.

We are going to 5-7 million farmers over a specific period starting from November. And while this dry season programme is going on, we will roll over to other states in the country. This is one of the agenda of the present FG. President Buhari’s body language and signer through the meeting with PS of the Agriculture is that I am behind the programme and I want to continue with the programme. So there is high level of continuity as expressed by President Buhari to the Permanent Secretary of the FMARD in the various meeting they have held. There is high expectation for continuity of programme that is good which GES is one of them.

What are the areas of your regrets in the GES as regards your role?

Okay, the only area of regret that I have is the fact that Government has now acquired a lot of information technologies to ensure GES and now NAPI, how I wish that government has invested more in getting more young information technologists to support the programme because ultimately we are going extra miles to support the programme. 

But if government could employ younger knowledable people in this area by being able to do what we are doing, I am of the view it will help the development of the nation faster even at Cellulant departure. The support of government to empower people who can do what we are doing will help the system a lot.

My own personal wish is that more young people like me working in the government system who has technology knowledge that can reduce the 100% pressure of what cellulant is doing as what we are doing is to provide support for government and that is why I wish more young people with technology driven knowledge can think of working with Nigeria government for the purpose of the development of our dear nation. From what I have seen, Government really needs a lot of technology talented young people to work with, and this is the only area of challenge and regret I have.

In most of the other countries I have worked and some of the countries that seem more organized than ours is because of the strength of the civil service. A good country needs a very strong civil service, and I think that we should try as much as to achieve more in this area to ensure strengthening the civil service. This is important because when Cellulant goes there should be competent people in the system that will be able to continue. 

The good thing is that we have been able to transfer some information technologies responsibility to Government because the GES system is like seven core systems with about other sub systems. As we have already transferred two, meaning about 14 sub systems, and out of the remaining five, we have started working with about another three as our goal is targeting next year when government would have been able to handle six out of the seven. 

We do not want to stay inside government permanently forever; we have to build more capacity for people inside the system who can run with it so that we can continue with other work. Cellulant is different from many others who want government to be a slave as we believe that Government should be strong institution for efficient performance of her obligation for the citizens. We help government to be strong as when she strong, the economy will get boosted, and when this happens, there will be opportunity for everybody in terms of jobs. That is my take as Bolaji.