Nigeria may soon become exporter of rice....CBN

Nigeria may soon become a net exporter of rice, Isaac Okoroafor, the Acting Director of Corporate Communications at the Central Bank of Nigeria, has said.


Okoroafor said this in his presentation at the Time Economics Breakfast Meeting, a monthly presentation by the Time Economics Consulting Firm, on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said such a feat could become possible because of the increased harvest from the programme the CBN embarked upon with rice farmers in Kebbi State.

The meeting was held to discuss the recent shock vote in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and what it portends for the Nigerian economy.

The forum also deliberated on the economic implications of the floating of the Naira embarked by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Okoroafor said: “Our expectation was that each farmer will get four to five tonnes but they are making seven to eight tonnes per hectare.

“This is just rice and there are millions of farmers waiting for this.

“This is just a pilot project.

“If we do this consistently till 2018, we will start exporting rice.

“If we can do this for about 10 commodities in two years, we will go out of this, but if we don’t, no amount of policies or management can help us.”

In his contribution, Dr. Ogho Okiti, the Chief Executive Officer of Time Economics, said the Federal Government should deepen reforms in various sectors of the economy that could attract investments and create jobs.

According to Okiti, Brexit has resulted in uncertainty in the global market and this, he said, would linger for a while.