…Says it will kill local industries
By Bimbola Oyesola,[email protected]
Workers in the food and tobacco sector of the economy have kicked against the recent lifting of ban on forex for 43 items by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The workers, under the umbrella of the National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), warned that the bank’s action would do more harm than good to the sector.
The president of the union, Garba Ibrahim, said, presently, some of the items on the list were what the nation was still struggling to sustain.
“If you go through the list of items, you will realize that some of the items concern the food industry directly,” he said.
He maintained that it “would affect us negatively because when the government gives room for the importation of food items like rice, when we are struggling to sustain our local industries, we cannot grow.”
According to Garba, in Kano alone, there are about 42 rice mills in operation and others in neighboring states like Jigawa, Sokoto and others.
“So, if we lift ban on importation of rice and it floods our market, Nigerians may not patronize our local rice, and this would lead to the closure of most of our industries,” he said.
On the fact that the local industries have not been able to meet the national demand, the NUFBTE president explained that the main reason that the local production has not been able to meet demand, while prices remain high, is because of the high cost of production.
“This has been exacerbated by lack of sufficient power supply, heavy tariffs among others. All these setbacks are the reason why we find ourselves in this quagmire,” he said.
Calling for the federal government support, Ibrahim reasoned that the local manufacturers have the capabilities to bridge the gap and export the excess to earn Nigeria foreign currency.
He said, “I still insist that if the federal government can provide a conducive atmosphere for our local manufacturers, we would not bother about the importation of rice and other food items.”
He maintained that the sector have sufficient resources and manpower to produce enough to meet demand and even export to neighboring countries if availed the right business environment.