The Senate ad-hoc Committee on Customs and Excise has made a strong case for the liberalisation of the importation of rice and used vehicles in the country, as part of efforts to curb smuggling and also increase revenue generation by the Nigeria Customs Service.

Recall that the Federal Government under immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari had banned the importation of foreign rice as part of measures to boost local production, a development that made the price of the product to skyrocket due to insufficient local production. The president had also restricted the importation of used vehicles to the seaports, which is believed to cause increased smuggling of such vehicles through unapproved land routes.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Francis Ade Fadahunsi, who spoke in an exclusive interview shortly after an inspection visit of the Seme Border Command of the Nigeria Customs Service as part of its oversight functions, noted that the ban on the importation of rice and restriction on the importation of used vehicles through land borders have over time proved to be counter-productive.

According to him, both policies have induced the smuggling of both products across unapproved routes and have therefore put immence pressure on the officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service, who struggle day in and out to suppress smuggling activities, arguing that many of them have lost their lives doing that.

“I still recommend that the Federal Government should lift the ban on the importation of rice and also relax the restriction on the importation of used vehicles through the land borders as against the current situation where such vehicles only come in through the seaports to relieve the service of the pressure in enforcing both policies at the same time.

“If the vehicles are allowed to come in through the land borders, Customs would also collect the appropriate duty and statutory levies on them to boost their revenue, the service has the manpower to do this. If the purpose of the restriction is to discourage the importation of older and rickety vehicles, the government can hike the duty payable on them but this outright restriction is counter-productive in my view.

“For the ban on the importation of rice, everyone knows that Nigeria is currently far from being self-sufficient in rice production and that is why the commodity is very expensive at the current price of about N50, 000 per 50kg bag because the local farmers cannot produce enough to feed the nearly 200million Nigerian population, so the ban is a huge incentive for smugglers since local production is insufficient.

“When you allow foreign rice to come in, there will be competition and the price will reduce and Nigerians would be the ultimate beneficiaries. Also, look at natural disasters, as you saw in the flood case last year that washed away many rice farms in Nigeria. The increasing price of grains across the world due to the Russia-Ukraine war. This is the same problem that is affecting egg production in the country because there is scarcity of grains to produce feeds for the chicks due to the war”, Fadahunsi argued.

Recall that the committee, which was on a fact-finding visit over reported cases of increasing violence against border communities allegedly by Customs operatives, had however commended the Seme Border Command over what it described as robust engagement with the relevant stakeholders including the border communities.

In attendance at the event were several traditional rulers, community leaders of the various border communities, heads of security agencies operating at the border, political leaders, freight forwarders, representatives from the Badagry Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture BACCIMA and several other stakeholders within the supply chain, who attested to the cordial relationship between them and officers and men of the command.

Senator Fadahunsi, a retired Assistant Comptroller General ACG of the service, while speaking at a two-hour interactive forum, had said it was evident from comments by the traditional rulers and the general interactions at the forum, that there is a robust and healthy relationship between the security agencies led by the Seme Customs Command and the entire border communities.

He noted that such cordiality should be replicated in other border commands so that security operatives would be in the right frame of mind to do their statutory assignments as against a situation where there is hostility, which gives the operatives a general sense of insecurity and fear, thus negatively affecting productivity.