Government urged to tackle smuggling to sustain agriculture 

Government urged by experts in the agricultural sector to tackle the issue of smuggling to sustain growth and investments in agriculture since government was forced to shut down the land borders initially owing to the high rate of smuggling which was hurting agribusinesses in the country.

The managing consultant, Foremost Development Services Limited, Fatai Afolabi welcomed the reopening of the land borders but stressed that poor structures to prevent smuggling by border authorities will allow economic saboteurs to take advantage.

“Smuggling does not help smallholder farmers or create jobs. The government needs to show seriousness and commitment to tackle smuggling,” he said.

According to him, smuggled cheaper agricultural products have deterred the country’s dream of having a vibrant agric sector.

He noted that the difficult operating environment, high cost of production, and logistics have made the country’s agricultural produce unable to compete favourably with imported cheaper products from Asia and Russia.

Similarly, Rotimi Oloye, president, Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFFAN), said that there will attendant flooding of the food market with cheaper and unhygienic products brought into the country owing to loose borders.

“It will hamper the recovery of investors in the agri-business as cheap products, enhanced by better-operating conditions in the country of such imports, flood the country,” Oloye said.

“There will surely be losses of investments and jobs with the collateral effects of uncontrolled trade across the borders,” Oloye said.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy shut down its land border with neighbouring West African countries in August 2019 to tackle the smuggling of rice and other goods.

This was done to sustain and maintain the numerous Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) initiatives such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme to grow the agricultural sector and protect investments in the sector.

If this is successful and coupled with the presidential order on forex restriction for food importation is effective, the country’s quest and investments to become food secure would remain on course, experts say.

Nigeria’s rice farmers and millers who struggled in the past to sell their products were smiling to the banks as demand for the crop rose owing to the border closure policy and ABP.

But smuggling and discouragement of local production will hinder recouping of loans under the CBN intervention programmes if left unchecked.

The CBN has committed more than N200 billion to support over a million farmers under the ABP initiative and this has spur investments across the rice, palm oil, fish, and poultry value chains among