Facts have emerged on how the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina contravened a presidential order on granting licence to import rice into the country by to unqualified importers.
An impeccable source in the Presidency told our correspondent that in May 2014, there was a presidential directive to give import licences to existing rice millers in the country following a meeting amongst ministers of Trade and Investment; National Planning; Finance and Agriculture to that effect.
The purpose of the import licence, our source said was to augment the shortfall in the local rice production capacity.
Consequently, a letter dated July 8, 2014 from the office of the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy announced the directive to relevant government agencies and bodies which included Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; Budget Office of the Federation; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; Federal Inland Revenue Service; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Nigerian Export Promotion Council; Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission.
According to the letter, “Importation of Brown rice (H.S Code 1006.2000.00) and semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed (H.S Code 1006.3010.00) by investors with rice milling capacity and verifiable backward integration programme.”
However, from May last year when the directive was ordered, nothing was done towards the implementation of the directive until December when the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina gave licence to non-existing rice millers, an action that generated the irk of rice millers in the country.
It was also revealed that the current spat between the minister and major rice millers in the country was a result of the breach of the presidential directive, as none of them was granted the import licence as directed by the presidency.
As a matter of fact, the crisis got to its head when it was discovered that those who got the import licence began to seek the existing rice millers to sell the licence to them, as the beneficiaries of the import licence lack capacity to undertake the task.
Among other things, the Presidency official disclosed that there was no inter-ministerial committee formed as instructed by Mr. President to deliberate on the issue and issue the licenses; that the Quotas was issued unilaterally by the Ministry of Agriculture, MOA at the minister’s discretion, allegedly to his favorites with no milling capacity thus causing a huge reduction in allocations to existing millers.
It equally alleged that the total quota allocation was not as per the supply gap of the Rice required by the nation as major stakeholders were not involved and that the quotas were issued retrospectively which, as alleged, is against the legal framework of the nation.
The Minister of Agriculture, Adesina, has been embroiled in controversy in recent time over the disagreement between him and major rice millers in Nigeria over allegations that he gave import licence to non-existing rice millers in the country in contravention to the presidential directive.
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