Maritime lawyer hails Govt policy on rice

An astute maritime lawyer, Barrister Emmanuel Nwagbara has hailed government policy on rice importation into the country.

He however enjoined the federal government to sustain the policy saying it has reduced importation of the staple food into Nigeria and increased local production.

Barrister Nwagbara, Managing Partner of the Maritime and Commercial Law Partners, who said this in an interview with newsmen in Lagos, called on Nigerians to support the policy

Recall that the federal government recently banned importation of rice through the land borders which has led to drastic drop in imported rice into the country as well as paved way for state governments to invest in local rice farming.

He said, “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 that lot of individuals in Enugu State, Ebonyi State and the rest are into production of rice”.

On why foreign rice still dominates 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”.