Nigeria spends $20bn yearly to import banana, cookies

The country spends about $20 billion every year on importation of foods including banana, irish potato, biscuits and cookies into the country.
Audu Ogbe, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, stated this on Tuesday while speaking during an interactive session with the Mohammed Monguno- headed House Committee on Agriculture.
According to him, the country can save $15 billion by curbing smuggling of food items, even as he lamented, that “If we carry on this way, Nigeria will be totally bankrupt in the next four years”.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari administration is determined to reverse the trend, adding that “our policy in the ministry is to achieve self-sufficiency in rice in two years.”

Read also: Women call for 10% budgetary allocation to agric

Ogbe said about 300 trucks of rice were smuggling through the porous borders, and that this necessitates the need for strong measures to halt smuggling into the country.
The Minister was optimistic about Nigeria’s capacity to export rice, cocoa and other agricultural produces, saying job creation for the teeming Nigerian youths is in the offing.
Members while speaking harped on the importance of adopting the Maputo declaration which stipulates 10% of the annual budgetary allocation to agricultural sector, against the 5% allocation currently adopted in the country.
Chairman of the committee Mohammed Monguno, in an earlier speech said the essence of the meeting was to identify ways of moving the agricultural sector forward.

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