MULTI-BILLION NAIRA RICE DEAL EX-PRESIDENT SIGNED BEFORE HANDOVER EXPOSED

Recent information on how former President Goodluck Jonathan signed several billion Naira rice deals on import quota just some hours before he left office has just surfaced, Premium Times stated.

Former Nigeria President,President Goodluck Jonathan.

A memo from state house dated May 27, 2015 revealed that the then Vice President, Namadi Sambo presented another memo which was signed and approved by the former President Jonathan a day earlier.

In the memo, Sambo requested a subsidy approval for selected rice importers  in order to bring in a total of

782,000 metric tonnes under what was tagged ‘2015 Rice Quota Allocations’.Ex-president endorsed the deal on his last day in office but subsequently, PMB administration rejected and cancelled it before its enactment.

It had been rumoured  that the  smugglers and  the beneficiaries  of  rice subsidy have joined forces to overturn the nation  rice development policy and evade  the payment of 40% tariff and  duties to the  government.
 

Akinwunmi  Adesina, the then minister of agriculture sent a  memo to the Ministry of  Finance titled ‘Approved List of  Companies Allocated Rice  Import Quota for  April 2015 to March 2016’ that his ministry had

found out a domestic rice supply gap of 1.3 million metric tonnes for the year 2015 and thus announced import quota allocations to 22 approved companies to import 961,000 metric tonnes of rice.

But,upon seeing the  memo, Sonny Echono, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture stopped the quota list based on the information reaching him that, Nigerian rice farmers were unable to sell their paddy to local rice millers as a result of ‘dumping’ Nigerian market was experiencing at the  time.

Thus, a new quota was released which contained new beneficiaries such as Hammond Wright Nigeria Ltd, Blaine & Wilkes Nigeria Ltd, Blue Line Investments Nigeria Ltd, Quarra Rice, Arewa Livestock Farms, African Farms, Olea Nigeria Ltd and Dependable Foods & Confectionery but all of  them  could  not get approval by the  vice president Sambo. He  made some changes and the  quota  was cut from 22  to 20 but  the custom department did  not  approve of  it.


“For you to qualify for import quota you must have a rice farm or rice mill the size of which determines the size of your allocations. Some people call themselves investors even when they have no verifiable business down the rice value chain.
 “Some of the investors quote local capacities that are only a figment of their imagination. Because there is no serious verification exercise, these phantom figures are added up as national rice production capacity. The higher the local capacity, the lower the national supply gap.

“In the end, you find that the actual supply gap might be higher than the 1.5 million metric tonnes quoted in 2014. The real beneficiaries remain the smugglers while the real investors face hard times in boosting local production which is the only objective of the rice policy.”



"Some people parade themselves as investors even when they had no business in the rice chain"Evelyn Beredugoh, a policy analyst had said.