The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh has disclosed the reason behind the expensive nature of rice in the Nigerian market.
The minister while speaking on Wednesday in Abuja disclosed that businessmen demand for as much as $2.5billion a week for the importation of goods and services into the country.
Audu Ogbeh while meeting with officials of VICAMPRO, an indigenous Agro Company investing in production of Irish Potato urged local investors to produce more goods adding that the ministry of Agriculture is ready to support local investors.
He further attributed the expensive nature of rice in the country to the rising level of consumption of the food item which he said contained some degree of arsenic.
Ogbeh during the meeting also warned against large consumption of rice noting that it poses health risks.
He said: “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.
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