President Goodluck Jonathan Thursday said his government would soon ban the importation of rice into Nigeria, insisting the country had adequate arable land that could be cultivated to feed its citizens and the rest of Africa.
Receiving the report of the Northern Nigeria Economic Summit, Jonathan said: ‘if you have exotic taste for foreign rice, then be prepared to fly your private jet abroad to buy it, as I will make a major pronouncement on rice in my budget speech to the National Assembly soon.’
The President, who is expected to deliver details of his budget proposals for 2012 to the National Assembly in the next few weeks, told the summit members, organised by the Professor Jerry Gana-led G-20 Group, that the coming ban was part of measures to stimulate local production and consumption of rice in the country.
The G-20 Group is made up of eminent politicians from northern Nigeria sympathetic to the aspirations of President Jonathan. They had on 17 March, held the First Northern Economic Summit in Kaduna.
The President also said that Nigeria could no longer rely on rice importation, as most of the imported rice had been stored in silos for over 10 years, adding that they were deficient in nutrients as they had been preserved with so much chemicals for over years before being polished and shipped to Africa.
Jonathan assured that his resolve to revolutionise the Nigerian agriculture sector remained unshakeable, stating that the lower poverty index in the agriculture-driven North Central Zone compared to that of the highly-industrialised South-West Zone was a testimony of the huge and great potentials that abound in the agriculture sector.
He pledged to cooperate with the G-20 in any area that could be beneficial to the aspiration of the north, stating that if crude oil could be found in neighbouring countries of the north, then there should be oil in Northern Nigeria.
He therefore said that ongoing search for oil in the north would continue.
Leader of the group, Prof. Gana, had earlier told the President that ‘the report identified challenges and constraints such as poor energy supply, weak physical infrastructure and weak governance systems drained by corruption, as current impediment facing the north.’
He listed others to include lack of finance for private-sector investments, inadequate human capital development, policy inconsistencies, ineffective institutional frameworks for development administration and recent internal security challenges.
The G-20 leader stated that ‘increased food production has become absolute necessary to provide food supplies for our growing population, and for exports.’