Expdonaloaded News; CBN may bar rice importers from forex market

As part of measures to further conserve the nation’s declining foreign reserves, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may soon shut its foreign currency windows to rice importers to help local farmers further raise their production capacities and create more jobs for Nigerians.

The decision follows ob- served improvment in produc- tion capacity of local rice farmers and millers during a fact-finding visit by staff of the apex bank on the directive of the governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
The governor had recently sent staff of relevant departments of the bank on a mission to as- sess the performance of local rice farmers in about 20 states of the country to see how they can be assisted.
Emefiele who was apparently disturbed by the country’s soar- ing rice import bill in the face of a thriving local rice industry, felt there was need to reduce the huge bill since the local farm- ers can meet the nation’s rice demand. However, preliminary reports from the CBN staff visit show that farmers in about 20 of the rice producing states are do- ing fairly well with production to suggest that the country has no business with rice importation.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com..It was found out for instance that in the last harvest season, farmers in Kebbi state alone at- tained very high yields of about 7 metric tonnes per hectare, as against the average yield of about 4.5 metric tonnes per hect- are. In the absence of off-takers for the impressive harvests, the state government said that it had invested about N800million to purchase over 180, 000 metric tonnes of rice for storage from local farmers, in order to encour- age them to continue farming.
Also in one of the major rice-producing belts of the state, (including Jega and Yola-Au- gie), the CBN team had found out that only 20 percent of the 500,000 hectares of land avail- able for rice cultivation was being utilized at the moment suggesting that land was never a constraint to the country’s rice farmers.
But while Kebbi is only one of nearly 20 states in the country that can grow rice in commercial quantity, and findings of the CBN staff visits to other states still being awaited, the Kebbi State results alone could make it difficult for the Central Bank of Nigeria to continue allowing rice importers access to it foreign exchange window in the face of depleting reserves consider- ing that Nigeria has capacity to produce the rice she consumes locally. This is further strength- ened by the fact that research has shown that locally produced rice is of the highest global quality, while there is still plenty of land for more cultivation.
Meanwhile, the Stallion Group, one of Nigeria’s fore- most conglomerates said it has intensified efforts at expanding its operations in the country’s fully integrated rice value chain.
Leveraging on the policy im- petus provided by the Federal Government through its Agri- cultural Transformation Agenda, Stallion Group said it has already established a major increase in local production to 430,000 met- ric tonnes per annum.
The Group said it is target- ing production of 1.50 million tonnes of rice production in Nigeria through setting up of more milling capacities and structured farming activities. Investments by Stallion in the rice supply chain are expected to exceed N 30 billion in the coming months. The Group is producing premium varieties of rice from local paddy being mar- keted by the company under the names “Royal Stallion Shinka- fa” and “Super Champion’’ which are now amongst the most popular Made in Nigeria brands of rice.

Click photo to download; but you lied to me by Expdona aka finish gravity

Expdonaloaded blog;Click the photo to download aboki wey d suya by Expdona aka finish gravity