The Federal Government has declared that all foreign brands of rice in the country at the moment were smuggled, adding that some of them were poisonous.
According to the government, recent tests conducted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that most imported rice and poultry products were poisonous, as the commodities had been stored for several months before being shipped to Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
It also stated that the different varieties of rice currently consumed in Nigeria were smuggled based on submissions by the Consumer Protection Council that it had not seen any ‘Form M’ for rice importation since the beginning of this year.
An ‘e-Form M’, as it is popularly called, is a mandatory documentation process put in place by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria to monitor goods that are imported into the country as well as enable collection of import duties where applicable.
Speaking in Abuja at a stakeholders’ engagement programme on how to stop the importation and smuggling of frozen poultry and rice into the country, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, noted that it was the duty of the government to protect citizens against any form of harm.
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