In order to prevent goods from being smuggled out of the nation, President Bola Tinubu has ordered strict adherence to the Export Prohibition Act with relation to food items.
In order to prevent goods from being smuggled out of the nation, President Bola Tinubu has ordered strict adherence to the Export Prohibition Act with relation to food items.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Wale Adeniyi, the Comptroller-General of the service, revealed this to the leaders and participants of the Dawanau International Grains Market in Kano on Friday.
He claimed that because Nigeria was able to feed its people at the time, the Act had not been put into effect.
The president, he said, had ordered that the Act be completely enforced in order to prevent food goods from being exported when people were in extreme need of them, given the current food crisis the nation was experiencing.
In order to ensure that there is enough food for everyone, the comptroller-general then pleaded with the Dawanu grain traders to support the government by following the order prohibiting the export of food goods.
It makes no sense for a rational, truthful nation to export food when its people are in need of it.
“I am here to interact with you and ask for your support because you are major stakeholders in this direction,” he stated.
The comptroller-general was informed by Muttaka Isah, the president of the Dawanau International Market, that the association’s members were dealing with a number of issues, one of them being “the unfounded allegation in some quarters that our dealers hoard grains in their warehouses.”
“I want to take this opportunity to refute this unfounded accusation and let Nigerians know that we don’t stockpile food.
Before we deliver the grains to our clients in the markets, we store the grains that we buy from growers and other sources in our warehouses for a while.
For the sake of operating convenience and to keep the food safe from outside contaminants that could spoil it, we store these grains. That is the actuality.
The almost total lack of operational understanding between our bean importers and Nigeria Customs Service agents, particularly along the Nigeria-Niger international border, is another problem plaguing this industry.
For the interest of our clients in particular and Nigeria in general, we kindly request that the Nigeria Customs Service employees loosen their restrictions on the importation of beans and other products from the Niger Republic.
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