Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu says efforts to get the
nation out of its present economic challenges are beginning to yield positive
results, especially in agriculture.
According to the presidential aide, an increase in the
volume of rice production and processing across the country is already saving
the country a lot of foreign exchange.
Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant on Media and
Publicity to the President, said that Nigeria only imported 58,000 tons of rice
from Thailand in 2015 as against 1.2million tons in 2014.
He revealed that due to the country’s growing rice
production occasioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to deny foreign
exchange for the importation of rice “parboiled rice mills’’ in some
Asian countries were shutting down production.
According to him, this is because Nigeria, which is one of
the world’s largest importers of rice no longer, buys rice from them.
“Five of such mills in Thailand servicing Nigeria have stopped
production due to the withdrawal of our patronage,’’ he added.
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