Custom officers
Custom arrest 344 smugglers. The Nigeria Customs Service recovered a total of N3.02 billion in illegal rice between May 2022 and May 2023, according to data obtained by The PUNCH on Tuesday.
According to data received from the service through its National Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent of Customs Abdullahi Maiwada, 206,835 bags of rice were seized during the time under review.
This comes as rice farmers lamented the ongoing incidences of product smuggling and urged the NCS and the Federal Government to step up the fight against smugglers.
According to NCS data, the service made a total of 1,745 seizures throughout the 13-month evaluation period.
The PUNCH further learned that the import duty on these seizures was N1.7 billion, with a duty-paid value of N4.74 billion.
The most seizures were made in June 2022, with around 266 seizures of 13,775 bags of illegal rice valued N260.54m.
The biggest number of seized bags, however, was in September 2022, when 118 bags of rice worth N295.88m were seized.
In addition, the largest value of seizures was N420.84m in February 2023, with 172 seizures totaling 12,239 bags.
The PUNCH also learned that 344 suspected smugglers were apprehended, with 291 apprehended between January and December 2022 and 53 apprehended between January and May 2023.
In response to the news, Maiwada stated, “We have our data, and no country in the world has completely stopped the activities of smugglers or smuggling.” We also know how large and porous the border lines are, as well as the number of human resources we have, despite the fact that more are on the way.
“Some are currently undergoing training and will arrive in the coming months.” We also have facilities on the way. As a result, we are doing all necessary to keep smuggling to a minimal minimum.
“We have data to back up what we’re saying right now.” As noted in the final column, here is the number we seized, as well as the amount, value, duty, and duty-paid value. We have the amount of rice seizures recorded in each month, the number of bags confiscated, which will be 50kg, the value, and other information for the previous year.”
According to AFAN, customs must be proactive.
“Rice smuggling into Nigeria is detrimental to indigenous production, and this is bad for Nigerian farmers.” Our border institutions must rise to the occasion.
“The Nigeria Customs Service needs to be more proactive.” It must improve its border management in Nigeria. We are aware that seizures and arrests have occurred, but they must increase their efforts.
“Can you easily smuggle such items into these neighboring countries?” We are losing money as a result of these acts, which must be investigated. The amount lost as a result of rice smuggling into Nigeria is enormous, I can’t put a figure to it now, but it is huge,” he stated.
Farmers account for 4.6 million people.
According to the communiqué from the March 2023 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, about N12.64 billion was released under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme between January and February 2023, bringing the total payment to N1.09 trillion, covering over 4.6 million farmers.
“The committee reviewed the performance of the bank’s various interventions aimed at stimulating production and productivity across the real sector,” it said in part. Under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the bank disbursed N12.65 billion to three agricultural projects between January and February 2023.
“This brings the total disbursement under the program to N1.09 trillion to over 4.6 million smallholder farmers cultivating or rearing 21 agricultural commodities across the country on an approved 6.02 million hectares of farmland.”
In March of this year, the International Monetary Fund revealed that only 24% of loans disbursed under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme had been returned.
This declaration was included in the IMF’s Selected Issues paper on Nigeria, which was prepared by a fund staff team as background documentation for the country’s periodic consultations.
The paper was completed on January 12, 2023, and was based on the information available at the time.
According to the IMF, agricultural lending in the country has not considerably increased output, despite the difficulties of identifying the suitable users for the credit.
According to the report, “the weak effect of agricultural credit on production growth could be associated with difficulties in targeting the correct recipients.”
The IMF remarked that, despite the fact that the CBN permitted farmers to pay in kind or cash under the ABP, repayments were extremely low.
The document read, “For the Anchor Borrowing Programme, repayment is also low at 24 per cent, especially since repayment can be made in kind, thereby limiting the tenor of the loans to one year.