Ebun Francis|
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has rubished a report by a United State agency that claimed that Nigeria’s rice importation increased by 400,000 metric tonnes in 2018.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) projection, Nigeria will import 400,000 tonnes of rice in 2019, becoming the second largest importer of rice in the world, after just China.
But reacting to the report, the CBN governor who debunked the report, also reiterated the position of the apex bank that not a single dollar has been approved for the importation of rice since 2016.
Emefiele described the report as “false and fake news”.
He said, “I was reading a report where the United States said the volume of imports of rice increased by 400,000 tonnes.”
“I am not a politician, but people should be very mindful when they open their mouths to say what is untrue because we would come out as central bank to attack it particularly if you use data incorrectly.
“I seize the opportunity to say that it is untrue. The data that we have today shows that rice imported legally into the country is less than 25,000 tonnes in 2018 so far.
“Then how come an agency which has not been to Nigeria or even been to the farms to see what we are doing, just come up and say that Nigeria has imported 400,000 tonnes above what it normally should import?
“Go to the data of countries that export rice, you would see their data; you would find the quantity of rice imported by Nigeria. This is false and fake news.
The CBN and the federal government, has invested over N100 billion through Anchors Borrowers scheme for the cultivation of rice, wheat, sorghum and many other farm produce in the last three years.
According to the CBN, more than 800,000 farmers have benefitted directly from the scheme.