How Tinubu’s policy eased importation of rice, maize, wheat into Nigeria— BUA CEO

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The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BUA Group, AbdulSamad Rabiu, said the government’s suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of major food items has allowed his company to successfully import these items into the country.

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The BUA boss, who disclosed this while speaking to journalists on the outcome of his meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Thursday at the presidential Villa in Abuja, said the policy is helping to reduce food prices in the country.

He explained that his company has leveraged the tariff waiver policy on food items to import major staple foods, including rice, maize, and wheat, in an ongoing effort to reduce skyrocketing food prices in the country.

He argued that this effort has helped significantly reduce the prices of the aforementioned food items and their products.

“So what we did was, we keyed into that policy and BUA was able to import quite a lot of wheat, maize and rice. And the moment the shipment started coming, we started processing, we crushed the prices of some of these commodities,” Mr Rabiu said.

Over the past 23 months of Mr Tinubu’s administration, food inflation in the country has steadily risen until recently.

The rise, largely orchestrated by Mr Tinubu’s removal of petrol subsidies and the floating of the naira in 2023, has prompted the government to initiate several policies during this period in an effort to ameliorate the hardships faced by citizens in the country.

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Some of the moves by the Tinubu-led government include declaring a state of emergency on food insecurity and suspending duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of major food items like beans, wheat, and husked brown rice.

“Food costs is coming down”

On Thursday, the boss of BUA Foods explained that the government’s duty-free policy has enabled his company to seamlessly complement the effort of making food available to citizens at affordable prices.

Mr Rabiu explained that he informed the President that food prices are coming down in Nigeria, and that they are doing quite a lot to support that effort. He said this has contributed to the profound reduction in the prices of food items that Nigerians have started experiencing.

Mr Rabiu explained to the president that prior to the removal of the taxes on imported foods, rice was about N100,000 or thereabouts per 50-kilo bag, flour was about N80,000 per bag, maize was about N60,000 per 50-kilo bag, and pasta was above N20,000 per carton.

“And today I’m happy to inform you that the price of rice is about N60,000 from last year at N110,000,” he said.

“So what we did was, we keyed into that policy and BUA was able to import quite a lot of wheat, maize and rice. And the moment the shipment started coming, we started processing, we crashed the prices of some of these commodities.”

The BUA Foods boss said flour is today N55,000 per 50 kilo bag, while maize is about N30,000 and that this happened because of Mr Tinubu’s “foresight and vision” by introducing that one-off duty waiver for a period of six months.

“With that, he said they have been able to “bring down the prices of these commodities,” he said.

“Rice paddy hoarders are crying”

Mr Rabiu narrated that the duty-free importation of rice and other foodstuffs approved by the government recently has negatively impacted rice paddy hoarders in the country.

Rice paddy is the raw form of rice grain used to process refined rice.

He said many companies in Nigeria usually buy a lot of rice paddy at low prices during harvest season and store it for a period of three to four months. However, at the end of the season, he said the price will double.

“So a lot of people don’t know that, but that has always been the problem,” Mr Rabiu said, stating that during the peak season, companies buy paddies between N400,000 and N500,000 per ton, which does not necessarily affect farmers’ profit.

“So what that intervention did when we brought in was to create an issue for those hoarders. Because the moment we imported, we were selling, and those hoarders had a lot of paddy, they could not sell, and the price now came down, and it is still down,” Mr Rabiu narrated.

The BUA official alleged that a lot of those holders of rice paddies are actually crying now and losing money.

“But for me, I think it is important because at the end of the day, I do appreciate that, yes, we need to protect our farmers, but at the same time, we also have 250 million Nigerians that are paying a lot more than what they should be paying because of what few companies or individuals are doing,” he said.

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To address this concern, Mr Rabiu said they have come together as rice millers to advocate against rice paddy hoarding in the country.

“What we are doing as rice millers is that we want to ensure that they are not buying and hoarding paddy, although at the end of the day, it’s quite difficult to stop that,” he said.

“It is quite interesting that when prices were quite high, N100,000 everybody was shouting, now that prices are down or are coming down, it is like, nobody is coming out to say, look, food prices are coming down, but I’m happy to say that food prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down.”