The
apex bank of Nigeria has declared the country will become
self-sufficient in rice production next year with plans of exportation
for foreign exchange.
Before the end of 2017, Nigeria will begin to export rice to other
countries, the Central Bank of Nigeria has said, according to the Punch.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac
Okoroafor, said this on Tuesday during a sensitisation/awareness
programme for farmers in Bayelsa State under the apex bank’s Anchor
Borrowers’ Programme.
Okoroafor, who said the ABP had started yielding fruits, insisted
that with the progress so far recorded by the CBN through its
agricultural financing policies, the country would begin to export rice
by next year.
He said already the rice harvest this year had exceeded
projections, noting that if the tempo was sustained, by the end of 2017,
Nigeria would not only meet its national demand, but would export the
produce to other countries.
Okoroafor said, “We started a pilot programme in Kebbi State
with 78,000 farmers, cultivating an average of one hectare, and that was
when President Muhammadu Buhari launched the programme in March last
year.
“The programme was to enable farmers to plant three times in
year, two dry seasons cropping and one rainy season cropping. I am
telling you now that Kebbi State has exceeded one million tonnes of
rice.
“Not only Kebbi; Ebonyi State has keyed into it. We were there
last week and Ebonyi is to give us over 1.2 million tonnes of rice in
one year. They are harvesting now, they are bagging and they are
milling. Nigerians are booking their Christmas rice in Abakaliki.”
He added, “Abia State has ordered rice from Ebonyi State. Other
states are keying in. In Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Cross River, rice is
coming up. Nigerians are planting and producing rice. You need to taste
Nigerian rice; it is fresh; not the nine-year old rice from Vietnam,
Thailand and India. Let us feed ourselves. Our rice is healthier; it is
not preserved with chemicals.
“We have been to Anambra, Niger, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Cross
River and Ebonyi states just to ensure that this is not another talk
show. We have seen the harvest of rice, which brought me to say that the
harvest for this year has so far outstripped our projections.
“By the end of 2017, Nigeria will not only meet our national
demand, which is between six and seven tonnes per year, but we will
exceed it and we will have rice to export to other countries.”
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