Adesina Warns Food Importation May Thwart Nigeria's Agric Sector

The President, African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has warned that the decision by the Federal Government to grant access to food importation may destroy the country’s agriculture sector.

Adesina spoke at a retreat by the African Primates of the Anglican Church in Abuja.

He, however,  advised that more food should be produced which would boost employment in the agricultural chain.

On July 10, 2024, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, announced that the Federal Government would suspend duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas through the country’s land and sea borders, for 150 days.

Kyari had said, “To ameliorate food inflation in the country caused by affordability and exacerbated by availability, the government has taken a raft of measures to be implemented over the next 180 days:

The minister had stated that in addition to the importation by the private sector, the “Federal Government will import 250,000MT of wheat and 250,000MT of maize. The imported food commodities in their semi-processed state will target supplies to the small-scale processors and millers across the country.”

Adesina while reacting to the plan, faulted the policy.

Adesina, a former agriculture minister, said, “Nigeria’s recently announced policy to open its borders for massive food imports, just to tackle short-term food price hikes, is depressing.”

He warned that the policy could undermine all the hard work and private investments that had gone into Nigeria’s agriculture sector.

“Nigeria cannot rely on the importation of food to stabilise prices. Nigeria should be producing more food to stabilise food prices while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange spending, that will further help stabilise the naira.

Adesina, who spoke on the theme, ‘Food security and financial sustainability in Africa: The role of the Church’, said Nigeria “must feed itself with pride,” warning, “a nation that depends on others to feed itself, is independent only in name.”