EFCC, RIPAN partner to stop rice smuggling

To tackle the menace of rice smuggling, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has met with the executives of Rice Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN) in Abuja, on possible ways of ending the illicit trade.

The meeting, is said to be a reaction to the marching order issued by the presidency to anti-graft bodies, security agencies and intelligence outfits to put a stop to the ‘deliberate’ act of economic sabotage by persons that do not mean well for the nation.

The order came against the alarm raised by RIPAN that over one million metric tons of rice was smuggled into the country within three months.

At a recent briefing, RIPAN’s Chairman, Mohammed Abubakar Maifata, said: “Investors in Nigeria have made enormous financial commitment in the rice sub-sector. Unfortunately, the only threat to the industry’s total development is smuggling. Over one million metric tons of rice, which is equivalent to about 20,000,000 bags of 50kg rice have been smuggled into Nigeria in the last three months.

“Investigations conducted by the association in the last few months indicated that all our international borders have been converted to smugglers routes and our markets are filled with smuggled foreign rice.”

At the meeting, Magu regretted that the country is losing huge revenues, foreign exchange and jobs, as local rice processing companies are shutting down because of inability to access the market.