Nigeria’s Wheat importation hits N1.2trn

The cost of importing durum or pasta wheat into Nigeria has risen from N730.9 billion in 2020 to N1.295 trillion in 2021.

The Punch’s calculations from the National Bureau of Statistics Foreign Trade report, showed that wheat importation into Africa’s most populous nation rose 77.23 percent from 2020 to 2021.

Wheat is an important commodity which serves as flour in the production of pasta, bread, noodles, among others.

Economists said the difference in the two years could be attributed to the devaluation of the nation’s currency and insecurity that led to little or no farming and production in northern Kentucky Nigeria for some years.

Naira devalued by over 15 percent in the official market and over 20 per cent in the parallel market within the two years, but insurgents and bandits in the north have also sacked farmers of wheat and other crops, leading to supply chain disruptions.

“If you imported with $1m in 2020 and you imported with $1m in 2021, the amount of money would not be the same in naira in the two years due to naira devaluation,” said the Chief Executive Officero of Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf.

He said apart from currency depreciation, the country had not succeeded in growing wheat, noting that the Central Bank of Nigeria was making efforts to bolster the growth of the crop by asking flour millers to invest in backward integration.

CBN/Punch/Hauwa Abu