Nigerians Eat Too Much Rice, That’s Why It Is Expensive - Audu Ogbeh

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief
Audu Ogbeh, on Wednesday in Abuja said Nigerian
businessmen demanded 2.5 billion dollars (about N492
billion) a week for importation of goods and services
into the country.
Ogbeh made this known in a meeting with officials of
VIC
AMPRO, an indigenous Agro Company investing in
production of Irish Potato on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that the ministry was willing to support local
investors with capacity to produce goods and save the
country’s foreign exchange.
He said that the consumption of rice in the country was
rising and that a lot of people were not aware that the
rice had some degree of arsenic.
The minister said that consuming rice in large quantity
on a regular basis was a bit of health risk, adding that
substituting it with potato would be welcomed
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 very 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.
“We sat and were hoping that by devaluation, we are
going to arrive at Eldorado; if we continue like this, it
will be a thousand naira to a dollar,’’ he said.