Association decries rise in rice smuggling

THE Association of Local Growers and Legal Importers of Rice has raised the alarm over high level of smuggling of the product into Nigeria.

Chairman of the association, Alhaji Habilu Maishinkafa, noted that there were reports of hundreds of trailers coming into the country with expired rice, which he said were dangerous to the health of Nigerians.

He called on the Nigerian Customs Service and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) to take urgent steps to stem the rising wave of rice smuggling into the country.

Maishinkafa noted that with the present tariff of 70 percent, legal importers would not be able to compete with the smugglers who enjoyed free ride into the nation’s market and coupled with the negligible tariffs in the neighbouring countries.

Recently, the National Rice Millers Association of Nigeria (NRMAN) complained that the Nigerian Customs Service erred in its decision to lift the ban on importation of rice through the land borders.