Nigerian businessmen demand $2.5 billion (about N492 billion) weekly for importation of goods and services into the country, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, on Wednesday, September 14, revealed in Abuja,
The Minister spoke at a meeting with officials of VICAMPRO, an indigenous agro company investing in production of Irish potato.
According to him, the ministry would support local investors with capacity to produce goods and save the country foreign exchange. The minister noted that the consumption of rice was rising, and that many were unaware the rice had some degree of arsenic.
Ogbeh said consuming rice in large quantity on a regular basis was a health risk, adding that substituting it with potato is a welcome development.
“The volume of importation of virtually everything into this country is too much. “The demand for dollars in this country as at today is $2.5 billion a week; this is the quantum of dollars Nigerians are asking for to import things.
“Since 1986, we began this habit of importing everything, and doing virtually nothing at home to sustain ourselves; now, we do not have the dollars and people are hungry.
“This day was coming anyway, no matter who was in power; we have the most ridiculous method of devaluing our currency; every week, we auction the dollar and naira goes up.
He said: “We sat, and were hoping that by devaluation, we are going to arrive at El Dorado; if we continue like this, it will be a N1,000 to a dollar.’’
While praising the investor, Ogbeh said any private sector effort to develop local production of goods would be supported by the ministry.
“We should aggressively take the West African market; there is no reason why we should allow Irish potato from Ireland and France and Belgium into West Africa; it is the same story with onions.
“Under ECOWAS, at the level of government we are going to push for the greater part of the market for local investors,’’ he stated.
He urged VICAMPRO to process potato for use in hotels, saying hotels in Nigeria imported processed potato from South Africa.
