Ekwelem said, “Before the current administration, Nigeria officially allowed imported rice. As of the last quarter of 2014, official rice import from Thailand was about 1.24 million tons; by 2015, these imports had dropped to about 644,131 tons and in 2016, they dropped to 58,260 tons.
“In 2017, the imports further dropped to 23,192 tons but by 2022, it dropped to an all-time minimum of 438 tons,”
In a bid to encourage local production, importers of rice and 41 other items were stopped from accessing foreign exchange at the official window by the CBN in 2015.
