At a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the Director-General of RIPAN, Mr. Andy Ekwelem, said that there has been an upsurge in rice smuggling into Nigeria since 2021 when borders were opened as part of measures to boost trade between African states.
He urged the incoming president to restructure Nigeria’s customs service and overhaul the country's border surveillance network so that officials at Customs, other security agencies , and police can halt smuggling more effectively.
He added, "We'll want the new government to take emergency actions on repositioning the Nigeria Custom Services for effective manning of its borders."
“Smuggling of rice across the land borders is the main bane of the Nigeria rice sub-sector. The incoming administration must devise a strategy of dealing with smugglers and economic saboteurs if we want our food security programmes as well as the huge investments of both the government of Nigeria and the private sector in the rice sector to survive.
“To this extent, Nigeria’s current border surveillance system should be re-organized to enable the customs and other agencies at the borders to carry out all weather surveillance. Modern security equipment such as Long-Range Surveillance Drones, video monitors and night vision scopes should be deployed to our border security if they are not currently being used.”
Ekwelem explained that the nation’s rice sub-sector grew exponentially, between 2020 and 2021 when the federal government closed the nation’s borders with the Benin Republic.
He had been concerned, though, that with the opening of the country's borders in 2021 rice smugglers would increase their activities. This he said has had a very negative effect on both his industry and economy at large.
