NIGERIA is to end the ongoing practise of importing wheat from Russia as part the government's ongoing drive to reduce the nation's food bill and preserve scarce foreign reserves in the wake of dwindling oil revenue.
One of the world's largest wheat importers, Nigeria spent $880m on foreign purchases last year and has already spent $660m in 2016. However, will government revenue down as a result of dwindling oil prices and foreign exchange scarce, the government has decided to reduce its wheat imports.
Speaking yesterday after a meeting of the fourth joint commission meeting between Russia and Nigeria in Abuja, foreign affairs minister of state, Hajiya Khadija Abba-Ibrahim, said the imports would end. She added that from henceforth, Nigeria would invite Russians to help improve the country’s agricultural productivity.
Hajiya Abba-Ibrahim added: “We import a lot of wheat from Russia and we are telling Russia that this has to stop. We want the Russian companies and farmers to come to Nigeria to show us how we can grow our agriculture sector with modern technology.”
Russia's delegation to the talks was led by Dianov Alexandar Yurievich. In the first week on November alone, Nigeria imported approximately 53m tonnes of wheat valued at $7.8bn, according to data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Nigeria has stepped up wheat production and now produces 60,000 tonnes ranking 61st out of 79 countries in global production. According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country spends $11bn annually to import wheat, rice, sugar and fish.
Nigeria’s food import was growing at an unsustainable rate of 11% per annum. Wheat is in high demand in Nigeria as a raw material for bakery and feed mills.
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