The Managing Partner of the Maritime and Commercial Law Partners, Barr. Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbara has hailed the federal government’s policy on rice describing it as a good policy which should be sustained by the government and encouraged by all Nigerians.
Nwagbara who made his position on the policy known in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently recalled that rice importation was banned from the borders even as he pointed out that the importation of rice from the nation’s seaports had dropped drastically.
According to him,” It has dropped because various state governments embarked on production of rice and I am aware that Lagos State Government and Kebbi State Government embarked on production of rice. I am aware of that lot individuals in Enugu State, Ebonyi State and the rest are into production of rice”.
On why foreign rice still dominate the Nigerian market despite efforts to reduce its import into the country, he said,” We still see foreign rice because I don’t think it is going to be magical, I think it is internalizing. I prefer to eat locally manufactured rice today. In fact, wherever I see it, I prefer to buy. So, I think we also have to encourage those who are producing them by buying them whenever they produce them and I think government should support them in terms of the raw materials that they would need and grant soft loans to those who want to go into production of rice.
“But I think in all, it is a good policy. We are looking inwards and a lot of people are being engaged and a lot more people should be encouraged by making available subsidy like fertilizers to encourage those who want to go into production and those who would produce what they would eat and what they can sell to the public. So, I think the policy should be sustained and then of course, we still need power to power rice mills.
“So, for effective production, not much impact will be done if we produce at the subsistence level, we should be able to engage in industrial production of rice. As far as rice production is concerned, we have made progress”.
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