[su_dropcap]T[/su_dropcap]he scarcity of United States dollars in the country has forced rice traders to look inwards and patronise local growers and processing mills. It was gathered that distributors in Kano, Ondo and Lagos states as well as the Federal Capital Territory, among others, have been bombarding the milling factories with orders beyond their processing capacity.
A source in one of the rice milling companies, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the millers were having difficulties meeting orders as major distributors who depended on imported rice before now, had started showing interest in Nigerian brands.
The Public relations Officer, Nigeria Customs Service, Tin Can Island, Mr. Chris Osunkwo, confirmed that the volume of rice imports and other items restricted by the Central Bank of Nigeria from accessing foreign exchange from the official window had declined.
According to him, this has drastically affected revenue generation in form of tariff and levies at the Tin Can Island port.
Osunkwo explained, “The dollar scarcity has taken a toll on our revenue generation. In February, we made about N16.4bn; some of the items the government restricted foreign exchange from fall within the regular and highest revenue generating imports for us like rice and other items. Because of the restriction of access to foreign exchange, they are no longer coming in.
“We make a lot of revenue from them for the government. All the revenue that would have accrued to the government is not there again. We are only scraping to meet up. It has impacted negatively on revenue generation. We pray it doesn’t get worse.”
The Personnel Manager, UMZA International Farms Limited, an indigenous rice mill, Mr. Ali Aliyu, said that the limited number of mills in the country posed a hindrance to the supply of the produce to meet existing demand.
He added that insufficient power supply as well as taxes and levies by regulatory agencies had increased the cost of production, making indigenous rice to be unable to compete with the imported brands.
Aliyu said, “Power supply is not available and that is key as far as all manufacturing companies are concerned. For example, our company spends not less than N4.5m to N5m on electricity every month on diesel because we do not have sufficient supply of power. It means that the cost of production is high and the price will be high as well, and we have to make a profit. We do not have a good company that provides paddy rice from the farmers.
“Another thing is the tax from the local government, state and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria. The foreign ones are selling at lower prices than ours. You find out that you can hardly sell your rice below the price of the foreign ones. If you are not careful, the company will fold up. If the importation of rice is stopped, some of the challenges I highlighted will go.”