Import duty on rice and other agricultural products will be suspended in Nigeria

07-Aug-2024 03:11 PM

Abuja. In view of the rising food inflation in Nigeria, an important country in the African continent, a plan has been made to once again postpone the import duty on some other important food products including rice.

Guidelines are being prepared for this and on its completion, it can be implemented next week. It is known that in July, the Federal Government accepted the proposal to allow duty-free import for a period of 150 days for maize, wheat and brown rice.

In fact, due to the increase in food inflation in Nigeria, the common people are facing great difficulty. In view of this, the government is encouraging cheap imports.

According to senior official sources, the decision to allow duty-free import of food grains was taken only last month, but it got delayed in becoming effective.

In fact, the government wants to ensure that the interest of other concerned parties including farmers is not affected by duty-free import.

For this, it was considered necessary to prepare appropriate guidelines. The head of the Customs Department has urged the general public to exercise patience and said that the stock of food products already imported into the country and present in the ports will not be taxed or charged and will be given clearance as soon as possible.

He said that it is necessary to strike a balance between the interests of all the concerned parties. On one side there are farmers and food producers for which a long-term policy is needed and on the other side there is food inflation for which short-term measures are necessary to control.

It is worth mentioning that Nigeria is a very big country and it often has to import large quantities of rice, wheat and maize and other grains to ensure its internal food security. Rice is exported to Nigeria from India.