The federal government Tuesday in Abuja debunked
the report by the United States Department of Agriculture World Markets and
Trade that Nigeria imported three million metric tons of rice in 2018.
The US report had said the import figure is 400,000
metric tons higher than the quantity of the product that was imported in 2017.
The report also stated that Nigeria’s local rice
production dropped from 2016 to 2018 compared to the situation in 2015.
The report ran contrary to several claims by the
Nigerian Government that local rice production had increased while importation
had dropped by up to 90 per cent.
The report, which was released in October, showed
that since 2016, Nigeria had consistently milled 3,780,000 metric tons annually
which is a reduction from 3,941,000 metric tons recorded in 2015.
But the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed,
while briefing journalists in the State House,
described the report as false.
Mohammed, who said he had contacted the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Minister of
Agriculture and rice millers on the authenticity of the report, argued that
they all dismissed the report as untrue.
According to him, whereas 1.2 million metric tons
of rice was exported to Nigeria in 2014, the figure declined to 644,000 in 2015
and went further downward to 25,000 in 2016.
The minister also faulted the claim by the report
that local rice production in the country is declining, saying instead, local
rice production capacity has risen to 4.9 million metric tons.
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