Governor, of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has advised rice millers in the country to embrace the Bank’s backward integration initiative.
He said that initiative is aimed at conserving foreign exchange reserves, revamping local production capacity and creating employment.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Garewa Rice Mill in Kano, Kano State, today, February 1, Emefiele stressed the need for rice millers in Nigeria to get involved in paddy production to guarantee sustainable supply of paddy to their mills and also complement the supply from the smallholder farmers through the CBN’s partnership with the Rice Farmers Association (RIFAN) and prime anchors.
According to him, the number of rice mills in Nigeria had grown from less than ten, with a combined capacity of less than 350,000 metric tons, prior to the launch of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) in 2015, to over 60 integrated rice mills, with a combined capacity of about 3 million metric tons as at January 2022, with about 10 more mills scheduled to be commissioned later this year.
The Governor said that the increasing number of rice mills, which are being complemented by hundreds of small-scale mills located in every State of the Federation, attested to the conducive environment the CBN has been able to create in the rice value chain through its initiatives and stakeholders’ collaboration.
While stressing the need to match the increasing milling capacity of rice nationwide with increased paddy production, Emefiele charged millers to take advantage of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme and the Private-Sector Led Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (P-AADS) of the Bank.
He added that P-AADS provides long-term financing option to millers to finance commercial farms, land development, irrigation facilities and other agricultural infrastructure that will enhance their respective production plans.
He said that the quality of milled rice in Nigeria could match most foreign brands, even as he expressed gladness that the Bank’s collaboration with the fiscal authorities has helped to curtail the proliferation of Nigerian markets by sub-standard imported rice varieties. He enjoined Nigerians to heed the call of President Muhammadu Buhari to “produce what we eat and eat what we produce,” by patronizing rice brands milled in Nigeria,
Emefiele said that the resuscitated Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) will facilitate grading, sorting, quality assurance and storage infrastructure for key agricultural commodities and also enhance price discovery for smallholder farmers.
According to the CBN Governor, the exchange will provide aggregation hubs for millers to enhance paddy off-take and grow to providing future for millers and farmers to lock in prices and operate under a controlled price regime.
In his remarks, the Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, thanked the CBN Governor for not only extending ABP facilities to Kano, but also assisting the State in the area of infrastructural development of facilities, such as the Tiga and Chalawa hydro-electricity dam projects.
This was even as the Governor of Jigawa State, Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, eulogized the CBN Governor for empowering youth and creating wealth in the country.
The promoter to the rice mill, Alhaji Isa Garewa commended the vision of the CBN Governor on initiating the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), which has turned out to be the saving grace of Nigeria, especially with the outbreak of the Corona virus (COVID-19).
